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Purchased   by   the 
Mrs.    Robert   Lenox    Kennedy   Church    History    Fund. 

BR  755  .H8  1908 
Hulbert,  Eri  B.  1841-1907 
The  English  reformation  and 
Puritanism 


THE  ENGLISH  REFORMATION 
AND  PURITANISM 


Sii  (/h^  M-ej-QyiXr , 


The  English  Reformation 
and  Puritanism 

With  Other  Lectures  and  Addresses 

t/  By 

ERI  B.  HULBERT,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Professor  and  Head  of  the  Department  of  Church  History  and 
Dean  of  the  Divinity  School  of  the  University  of  Chicago 

A  MEMORIAL 

Edited  By  A.  R.   E.  WYANT,  Ph.D. 


CHICAGO 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 

1908 


Copyright  1907  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 


Published  January,  1908 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 

Chicago  Illinois,  U.  S.  A. 


FOREWORD 

It  was  the  conviction  of  Dean  Hulbert's  colleagues  that 
it  was  modesty  rather  than  lack  of  ability  that  was  respon- 
sible for  the  fact  that  he  could  never  be  persuaded  to  enter 
the  field  of  authorship  and  publication,  save  to  the  extent 
of  relatively  short  articles.  "He  loved  to  put  his  life  into 
men  and  institutions  that  served  men  rather  than  into 
books,"  said  Professor  Burton.  "Who  can  say  that  he 
would  have  been  more  wise  had  he  written  more  books  and 
helped  fewer  men?  For,  after  all,  books  are  for  men,  not 
men  for  books." 

Undoubtedly  his  throne  was  in  the  classroom.  It  was 
not  primarily  from  original,  learned,  personal  historical  in- 
vestigation that  he  gained  his  marvelous  control  over  the 
student  mind.  But  he  studied  the  material  furnished  him 
by  specialists  until  it  became  a  part  of  himself,  got  into  his 
own  blood  and  marrow,  and  made  him  red  in  the  face. 
Then  with  the  certainty  of  it  thrilling  his  entire  nervous 
system  he  became  a  mighty,  electrical,  teaching  dynamo. 

Livy  says  there  are  only  two  valid  reasons  for  making 
a  book:  either  the  author  should  have  something  new  to 
tell,  or  he  should  be  able  to  relate  in  a  better  style  what  was 
known  before.  If  it  be  doubted  that  Dean  Hulbert  made 
any  great  original  contribution  to  knowledge,  it  is  certain 
that  he  had  a  unique  and  surpassing  way  of  putting  his- 
torical facts.  His  style  was  exceptionally  pure,  clear,  and 
incisive,  expressing,  with  extreme  simplicity,  and  yet  with 
great  power  and  directness,  precisely  what  he  wished  to  say. 
His  magnetic  personality,  clean-cut  presentation,  and  force- 
ful delivery  fastened  the  truth  as  with  clinched  nails,  so 


vi  Foreword 

that  what  he  said  and  how  he  said  it  will  never  be  for- 
gotten by  those  who  heard  him. 

Since  his  departure  many  students  and  friends  have 
urged  the  publication  of  his  manuscripts.  There  has  been 
some  hesitation  about  consenting  to  publish  his  lectures 
because  of  his  well-known  aversion  to  this  while  living,  and 
also  because  much  of  his  available  material  had  not  been 
written  for  publication.  Furthermore,  a  number  of  his 
lectures  were  written  years  ago,  and  from  time  to  time,  as 
new  facts  were  discovered  to  modify  or  amplify  previous 
conceptions,  notes  were  inserted,  some  of  which  were  not 
elaborated  and  consequently  had  to  be  omitted  in  preparing 
the  material  for  the  press. 

Dr.  Hulbert's  method  of  classroom  work  was  the  use  of 
an  outline  of  his  course  for  individual  study,  and  the  prepa- 
ration of  special  subjects  by  students,  while  his  lectures 
served  as  a  preview  or  gave  a  resume  of  periods  that  were 
studied.  It  is  not  deemed  expedient  to  reprint  his  syllabus 
of  The  English  Reformation  and  Puritanism,  as  it  is  avail- 
able for  those  who  may  specially  desire  it. 

Acknowledgment  is  made  to  his  colleagues,  Professors 
Franklin  Johnson  and  J.  W.  Moncrief  for  their  kind  assist- 
ance in  seeing  this  volume  through  the  press,  as  well  as  for 
their  labor  of  love  in  teaching  his  classes  during  his  illness 
and  finishing  for  him  his  term's  courses.  It  is  hoped  by 
his  children  that  the  publication  of  these  lectures  and 
addresses,  with  a  brief  memoir  of  the  author,  may  not  only 
serve  as  a  worthy  memorial  of  our  honored  teacher  and 
father,  but  that  in  printed  form  they  may  help  to  continue 
his  life-work. 

.     A.  R.  E.  Wyant 

Chicago,   III, 
November  s,  1907 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 
PART  ONE 

BY  THE  EDITOR 

^  PAGE 

A  Brief  Memoir  of  Dean  Hulbert i 

II 

A  Memorial  Tribute  to  His  Character 13 

III 
Memorial  Addresses 21 

IV 

Memorial  Resolutions  and  Testimonials 29 

PART  TWO 

I 

Some  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation    .     .      39 

II 

Some  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation. — Con- 
tinued       67 

III 

The  Doctrinal  Formularies  Set  Forth  in  the  Reign  of 
Henry  VIII 99 

IV 

The  Protestant  Complexion  of  Edward's  Reign      .     .     125 

V 

Protestant  Sufferings  under  "Bloody  Mary"    .     .     .     149 

VI 

Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans.    1558-66 167 

VII 

Thomas  Cartwright  and  English  Presbyterianism  .     .     193 

vii 


viii  Table  of  Contents 

VIII 

Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency    .     .     .     .     217 

IX 

Puritanism  in  the  Reign  of  Charles  I.    1636-49      .     .    245 

X 

Puritanism  under  Charles  II.    1660-85 267 

XI 

The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 281 

XII 

The  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity   .     .     .313 

XIII 

The  Education  Act  of  1902 341 

•  XIV 

The  Baptists  of  Today  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland    361 

XV 

The  Influence  of  Christianity  upon  Education       .     .    383 

XVI 

The  Place  of  the  Home  Mission  Society  in  the  Evangeli- 
zation OF  American  Cities 405 

XVII 
The  Baptist  Outlook 433 

XVIII 

The  Man  and  the  Message  for  the  Twentieth  Century  ,    451 

XIX 

"Lest  We  Forget" — President  William  R.  Harper       .    475 


PART  ONE 

I 
A  BRIEF  MEMOIR  OF  DEAN  HULBERT 


A  BRIEF  MEMOIR  OF  DEAN  HULBERT 

It  is  not  our  purpose  here  to  tell  the  story  of  Dean 
Hulbert's  life,  but  to  give  only  a  biographical  sketch.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  inquire  concerning  his  heredity.  It  is 
related  concerning  Matthew  Henry,  the  celebrated  English 
Non-conformist  divine  and  commentator,  that  as  a  young 
man  he  won  the  heart  of  a  young  woman  of  quality,  whose 
love  her  father  sought  to  discourage  by  saying :  "Why,  you 
don't  know  where  he  comes  from."  To  which  she  replied: 
"Father,  I  don't  know  where  he  comes  from;  but  I  know 
where  he  is  going,  and  I  am  going  with  him."  We  all  know 
the  direction  of  Dr.  Hulbert's  life,  and  we,  too,  want  to  go 
with  him.  But,  if  need  be,  his  genealogical  tree  will  also 
bear  inspection.  Those  who  have  investigated  his  pedigree 
tell  us  that  he  is  descended  from  William  Hulbert,  who 
came  to  America  in  1630  and  was  made  a  freeman  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  Colony  in  1632.  His  family  history  is  traced 
through  WiUiam  Hulbert,  Jr.;  Benjamin  Hulbert  (1703- 
1760),  who  married  Thankful  Reese  and  was  a  soldier  in 
the  French  war;  Ambrose  Hulbert  (born  1752),  who  was 
at  the  battle  of  Bennington  and  afterward  served  through 
the  war;  Ambrose  Hulbert,  Jr.  (1781-1869),  who  married 
Dorothy  Baker  in  1805;  Eri  Baker  Hulbert  (March  11, 
1807 — June  9,  1852),  father  of  Dean  Hulbert,  who  married 
Mary  Louisa  Walker  (February  24,  18 10 — November  27, 
1874),  daughter  of  William  W.  Walker  and  Lucretia  Ferrel 
Walker,  at  Plainfield,  N.  Y.,  on  October  20,  1831.    Migrat- 

3 


4  A  Brie]  Memoir  of  Dean  Hulbert 

ing  to  Chicago  when  it  was  but  a  village,  Dr.  Hulbert's 
father  engaged  in  the  grain  business  and  made  the  first 
eastern  shipment  of  grain  from  Chicago,  sending  seven 
bags  of  wheat  to  Charles  Walker's  mill  at  Burlington 
Flats,  N.  Y. 

Dr.  Hulbert  was  a  simon-pure  Chicagoan.  He  was 
born  here  July  i6,  1841,  at  the  old  family  homestead  on  the 
location  where  the  Masonic  Temple  now  stands.  His 
father's  store  was  across  the  street  on  the  corner  now 
occupied  by  Marshall  Field's  great  retail  establishment. 
The  death  of  the  father  when  Eri  was  only  eleven  years  old 
left  the  care  of  the  family  to  the  mother,  who  devoted  the 
remainder  of  her  life  to  the  bringing-up  of  her  three  boys, 
William,  Eri,  and  George.  When  thirteen  years  old  Eri 
was  "baptized  by  A.  B.  Earle,  at  Burlington  Flats,  N.  Y., 
in  the  stream,  through  the  ice,  February  26,  1854."  With 
the  growth  of  the  city  and  advance  in  real  estate  prices,  un- 
fortunately the  down-town  property  was  sold  and  the  family 
homestead  was  removed  to  Fortieth  Street,  near  Cottage 
Grove  Avenue,  then  on  the  far  outskirts.  He  received  his 
preliminary  education  in  Chicago,  and  at  eighteen  entered 
Madison  University,  going  to  Union  College  for  his  senior 
year,  where  he  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  in  1863.  He 
contemplated  for  a  time  the  study  of  law,  but  later  entered 
Hamilton  Theological  Seminary,  where  he  graduated  in 
1865.  The  same  year  he  received  his  A.M.  degree  from 
Madison,  now  Colgate;  and  the  following  year  a  second 
A.M.  degree  was  conferred  upon  him  by  his  alma  mater, 
Union  College.  In  1880  he  received  the  degree  of  D.D. 
from  the  Baptist  Union  Theological  Seminary,  and  in  1898 
the  degree  of  LL.D.  from  Bucknell  University.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  Delta  Kappa  Epsilon  fraternity  and  of  the 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  society.     He  served  with  the  Christian 


Dr.  Hulhert^s  Five  Pastorates  5 

Commission  in  Grant's  army  while  before  Richmond,  and 
was  identified  with  this  work  until  the  close  of  the  war. 

DR.   HULBERT's  five  PASTORATES 

In  a  memorial  address,  Dr.  B.  A.  Greene  said : 
His  environment  contributed  largely  to  his  nature  and  to  the 
manner  of  his  growth.  He  was  born  in  Chicago,  the  cosmopolitan 
center  of  the  great  Middle  West.  Here  the  stir,  venture,  and  "I 
can"  of  the  new  country  got  into  his  blood.  The  winds  from  the  vast 
prairie  stretch  and  from  the  great  lakes  played  in  his  hair.  When 
the  boy  was  ready  for  college,  he  went  to  Union,  where  discipline, 
finish,  and  polish  came  to  him.  In  the  same  state,  at  Hamilton,  he 
took  his  theological  course.  In  this  school  he  came  under  the  sway 
of  that  Yankee-shrewd,  ox-hearted  religious  thinker.  Dr.  Dodge. 
The  West  and  the  East  had  kissed  each  other  in  the  make-up  of  this 
young  man  now  ready  for  a  settlement. 

His  first  pastorate  was  in  Manchester,  N.  H,,  1865-68. 
Returning  to  his  native  city  he  took  charge  of  the  work  at 
the  Rolling  Mills'  Mission,  continuing  from  1868  to  1870. 
This  mission  he  organized  into  a  church,  and  so  successful 
was  his  work  that  he  received  a  call  from  the  important 
First  Baptist  Church  of  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  where  he  had  a 
delightful  pastorate  from  1870  to  1874.  From  St.  Paul 
he  went  to  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  and  was  pastor  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church  there  from  1874  to  1878.  Thus  he  had 
measured  the  width  of  the  continent,  and  in  education  and 
preliminary  experience  had  touched  the  national  life  all  the 
way  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  Then,  as  has  been 
said,  at  the  age  when  F.  W.  Robertson  died,  he  came  back 
to  Chicago  to  put  in  twenty-nine  years  of  solid  work  in  his 
maturity.  The  first  four  years  were  given  to  the  pastorate 
of  the  Fourth  Baptist  Church,  from  1878  to  188 1.  In  his 
pastoral  relationships  he  was  everywhere  popular  and  much 
beloved,  many  of  the  best  people  in  his  churches  clinging  to 
his  personal  friendship  until  he  died.    He  was  most  consci- 


6  A  Brie}  Memoir  of  Dean  Hulbert 

entious  in  discharging  all  his  duties  as  pastor  and  preacher, 
and  some  of  his  sermons,  prepared  during  his  early  ministry, 
were  afterward  preached  in  the  largest  churches  of  the 
country.  He  always  travailed  in  giving  birth  to  the  children 
of  his  brain,  and  in  these  treasured  manuscripts  we  have  the 
life-blood  of  a  master-spirit. 

HIS  QUARTER-CENTURY  SERVICE  AS  A  TEACHER 

For  fifteen  years  he  gave  himself  devotedly  to  the  regu- 
lar work  of  the  ministry.  But,  as  Dr.  Greene  has  well 
said,  "his  intellectual  strength,  his  clean-cut  style,  his  lofty 
ideals  holding  him  in  scholarly  lines,  and  his  power  to  teach, 
made  him  the  inevitable  man  when  the  Baptist  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary  needed  a  professor  of  church  history." 
And  so  he  became  professor  of  church  history  in  1881  in 
the  seminary  then  located  at  Morgan  Park,  and  filled  the 
position  with  distinguished  ability.  It  was  here  that  he 
became  intimately  associated  with  those  two  great  teachers. 
Dr.  Northrup,  professor  of  theology  and  president  of  the 
seminary,  and  Dr.  Harper,  then  professor  of  Hebrew. 
During  the  year  1884-85  he  was  acting  president  of  the 
seminary.  When  the  University  of  Chicago  was  organized 
in  1892,  the  Baptist  Union  Theological  Seminary  became 
its  divinity  school,  in  accordance  with  the  provision  made  in 
the  original  gift  from  Mr.  Rockefeller;  and  Professor 
Hulbert,  upon  the  recommendation  of  Dr.  Northrup,  be- 
came dean  of  the  divinity  school  and  head  of  the  depart- 
ment of  church  history.  These  positions  he  held  continuously 
until  his  death.  The  curriculum  of  his  department,  as 
developed  under  his  guidance,  covered  an  unusually  wide 
range  of  study,  laying  special  emphasis  upon  the  history  of 
the  modern  period.  He  had  no  small  share  in  the  formation 
of  the  University  and,  as  one  of  President  Harper's  warm- 


His  Quarter-Century  Service  as  Teacher  7 

est  personal  friends,  his  helpful  intimacy  and  sympathetic 
interest  had  no  small  influence  in  molding  the  larger  life  of 
the  University. 

The  highest  ruling  body  of  the  University  of  Chicago 
has  expressed  itself  as  follows : 

The  Senate  of  the  University  of  Chicago  desires  to  place  on  record 
its  sincere  appreciation  of  <^he  service  rendered  to  the  University  by 
Professor  Eri  Baker  Hulbert,  and  its  sense  of  the  loss  sustained  by  the 
University  and  by  the  Senate  in  his  death. 

Coming  to  the  University  at  its  foundation  as  dean  of  the  Divinity 
School  after  an  experience  of  fifteen  years  as  a  Christian  pastor  and 
of  eleven  years  as  professor  of  church  history  in  the  Baptist  Union 
Theological  Seminary  at  Morgan  Park,  Dr.  Hulbert  quickly  adapted 
himself  to  the  new^  situation  v^^hich  was  created  by  the  incorporation  of 
that  institution  in  the  University.  Although  his  previous  educational 
experience  had  been  exclusively  in  the  training  of  men  for  the  practi- 
cal w^ork  of  the  Christian  ministry  and  his  interest  in  this  department 
of  education  continued  unabated,  he  entered  sympathetically  and  intelli- 
gently into  the  w^ork  of  directing  research  upon  the  part  of  his  own 
students  and  of  developing  a  school  of  theology  which,  by  adding  to 
its  task  as  a  professional  school  that  of  investigation  in  all  fields  of 
theological  study,  should  take  its  place  as  a  graduate  school  of  the 
University. 

As  dean  of  the  Divinity  School,  as  head  of  the  Department  of 
Church  History,  as  one  of  the  editors  of  the  American  Journal  of 
Theology,  be  contributed  worthily  to  the  promotion  of  theological 
scholarship  in  the  Divinity  School  and  in  the  country  at  large.  So 
deep,  however,  was  his  interest  in  every  phase  of  university  life,  and  in 
particular  in  the  welfare  of  the  student  body,  that  he  was  led  to  take 
an  active  part  in  the  life  of  the  University  as  a  whole,  serving  with 
especial  effectiveness  on  the  University  Council  and-  the  Board  of 
Physical  Culture  and  Athletics. 

A  clear  and  stimulating  teacher,  broad  in  his  sympathies,  quick  and 
keen  of  insight,  fearless  in  the  defense  of  his  convictions,  transparently 
honest  and  sincere,  endowed  with  an  unfailing  sense  of  humor  and 
with  an  indomitable  courage  even  in  the  face  of  heavy  burdens  of  pain 
and  suffering,  he  endeared  himself  to  all  his  colleagues  and  has  en- 
riched the  University  by  his  memory. 


8  A  Brief  Memoir  of  Dean  Hulhert 

On  June  ii,  1906,  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  Dr. 
Hulbert's  connection  with  the  seminary  and  Divinity  School 
was  appropriately  celebrated  by  the  alumni,  and  it  was  noted 
that  he  was  the  sole  survivor  of  the  teaching  staff  of  the 
seminary  of  twenty-five  years  ago.  Among  his  colleagues 
during  these  years,  whose  departure  he  had  lamented,  were 
Drs.  Jensen,  Boise,  J.  A.  Smith,  Sage,  Simpson,  Northrup, 
G.  S.  Goodspeed,  and  President  Harper.  It  is  a  well-known 
fact  that  he  did  not  serve  the  seminary  with  divided  interest, 
but  gave  it  his  whole  and  best  service.  However,  his 
activity  did  not  cease  with  the  limits  of  the  theological 
school,  but  he  rendered  valuable  service  on  denominational 
boards  and  was  a  teacher  in  the  Women's  Baptist  Missionary 
Training  School  from  the  time  of  its  organization.  His 
counsel  was  ever  in  demand  by  students  and  pastors.  His 
pen  has  given  many  strong  and  trenchant  contributions  to 
our  denominational  papers.  He  was  one  of  the  editors  of 
the  American  Journal  of  Theology  from  its  foundation  in 
1897.  During  a  number  of  the  earlier  years  of  his  teaching, 
on  almost  every  Sunday  he  was  supplying  somewhere,  thus 
helping  to  keep  the  churches  in  touch  with  the  seminary. 
He  never  craved  notoriety;  in  fact,  to  be  talked  about  was 
distasteful  to  him.  Notwithstanding  this  aversion  to  pub- 
licity, his  sermons,  lectures,  and  addresses  always  called 
forth  favorable  comment  whether  delivered  in  local 
churches,  at  state  conventions,  or  national  anniversaries. 

In  succeeding  chapters  will  be  found  an  estimate  of  his 
character,  of  his  power  as  a  teacher,  of  his  efficiency  as  an 
executive,  of  his  eminence  as  a  Christian  educator,  and  of 
his  influence  on  his  generation.  Though  the  printed  page 
cannot  convey  the  charm  and  power  of  his  personality,  the 
reading  of  his  lectures  and  addresses  will  best  help  us  to 
realize  him  again. 


His  Family  Joys  and  Sorrows  9 

HIS  FAMILY  JOYS  AND  SORROWS 

It  was  during  his  first  pastorate  in  Chicago  that  he 
married  Miss  Ethelyn  E.  Spencer,  of  Troy,  Pa.,  on  June 
23,  1869,  and  brought  his  young  bride  to  his  native  city. 
She  was  a  bright  Httle  vivacious  woman,  always  planning 
and  executing  a  multitude  of  enterprises  in  the  interest  of 
her  husband  and  his  work.  And  for  him  life  was  always 
lonely  without  her  cheery  presence.  Three  children  were 
born  of  this  happy  union :  Ethelyn  Louise,  in  St.  Paul ; 
Clara  Delia,  in  San  Francisco,  and  Charles  Eri,  in  Chicago. 
His  home  never  lacked  the  comforts  of  life,  and  with  his 
family  he  enjoyed  many  of  life's  luxuries,  physical,  intel- 
lectual, aesthetic,  and  spiritual.  He  was  glad  to  give  each 
of  his  children  the  enjoyment  of  a  college  education.  His 
family  spent  a  year  and  a  half  on  the  Continent  and  he 
crossed  the  Atlantic  twelve  times.  The  summer  vacations 
were  spent  in  the  northern  lake  region  or  in  travel,  and  were 
always  enjoyed  to  the  full.  His  was,  indeed,  a  happy 
home.  And,  moreover,  he  was  happy  in  his  work,  with  a 
conviction  that  God  had  called  him  to  his  chosen  field  of 
service. 

But  later  the  recurrent  and  protracted  illness  of  his  wife 
became  the  great  sorrow  of  his  life,  and  the  untimely  death 
of  his  daughter  Clara  added  a  weight  of  grief  seemingly 
too  heavy  for  mortal  heart  to  bear.  In  his  letter  for  the 
annual  roll-call  of  his  church,  October  31,  1906,  he  said, 
in  part : 

My  membership  with  you  dates  back  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  Nearly  all  the  older  members  in  the  earlier  days  have  passed 
to  their  reward  on  high.  When  my  duties  called  me  away  from 
Morgan  Park  I  ought  perhaps  to  have  taken  my  letter  of  dismission, 
but  several  reasons  constrained  me  to  elect  otherwise.  All  the  mem- 
bers of  my  family  were  in  church  connection  with  you,   and  I  did 


lo  A  Brief  Memoir  0}  Dean  Hulbert 

not  wish  to  draw  apart  and  form  a  new  connection  by  myself  alone. 
I  indulged  the  hope  that  my  household,  broken  and  scattered,  might 
some  time  be  reunited  and  that  we  could  re-establish  our  home  in 
IMorgan  Park.  But  the  years  have  passed  and  the  return  of  this  annual 
roll-call  finds  our  future  as  uncertain  as  ever 

I  am  constrained  to  say  a  word  in  behalf  of  two  from  whom  you 
will  not  hear  on  Wednesday  evening.  (Of  Grandma  and  Andrew  and 
Louisa  I  need  not  speak,  only  recently  have  they  left  you.)  Our 
Clara  after  ceasing  to  reside  in  Morgan  Park  continued  to  live  for 
Christ  in  her  school  home  in  Mt.  Carroll  and  in  her  church  home  in 
Denver.  To  Him  and  His  service  she  absolutely  devoted  her  refined 
nature  and  trained  intellect,  her  consecrated  will  and  beautiful  spirit. 
Her  quick  Christian  intelligence,  deep  inward  experience,  and  win- 
some personality  gave  her  access  to  many  who  could  not  be  reached 
by  stereotyped  modes  of  approach  and  appeal.  Though  tarrying  here 
on  earth,  she  lived  more  and  more  in  that  ideal  and  spiritual  world 
into  the  calm  and   fruition  of  which  she  has  now   entered. 

Those  of  you  who  knew  Mrs.  Hulbert  in  former  days  can  testify 
to  her  deep  and  abiding  interest  in  everything  which  concerned  the 
welfare  of  the  church.  When  the  roll  is  called  this  evening,  if  she 
were  able  to  respond,  she  would  assure  you  that  she  still  lives  in  the 
remembrance  of  those  happy  days  when  she  was  earnestly  engaged  in 
Christian  service,  and  that  nothing  would  give  her  greater  joy  than 
to  resume  those  activities  which  illness  compelled  her  to  lay  aside. 

HIS   LAST   ILLNESS   AND   DEATH 

Not  only  did  Dr.  Hulbert  suffer  in  the  distresses  of 
those  whom  he  loved,  but  the  burden  of  bodily  affliction 
at  times  rested  heavy  on  himself.  A  few  years  ago,  after 
a  radical  mastoid  operation  following  pneumonia,  his  life 
was  despaired  of,  but  he  was  still  brave  in  the  face  of  death. 
After  that  illness,  however,  he  enjoyed  most  excellent 
health,  and  we  thought  we  could  count  on  him  for  several 
years  more  of  service,  "rich,  ripe,  mellow,  the  quintessence 
of  all  that  had  gone  before."  He  spent  the  summer  abroad 
in  company  with  his  friend  Mr.  Jesse  A.  Baldwin,  and 
seemed  so  vigorous  during  the  autumn  and  early  winter 


His  Last  Illness  and  Death  ii 

that  his  friends  were  surprised  to  learn  of  his  illness  and 
shocked  when  they  heard  of  his  death.  He  passed  away 
peacefully  after  a  month's  illness  in  the  hospital,  at  3  135 
o'clock,  on  Sunday  morning,  February  17,  1907,  in  his 
sixty-sixth  year.  His  death  was  due  to  an  extension  of 
pneumonia  following  an  operation  for  gall-stones.  His 
case  was  serious  from  the  beginning,  as  rupture  of  the 
gall-bladder  had  already  taken  place.  He  fully  realized 
the  gravity  of  his  condition,  and  having  made  all  prepara- 
tions for  death,  made  a  long,  courageous,  uphill  struggle  for 
life.  Several  times  his  physicians  gave  up  all  hope  and  said 
he  could  live  only  a  few  hours,  but  each  time  he  rallied. 
The  University  daily  said  editorially:  "Any  man  of  ordi- 
nary makeup  would  have  gone  before  the  end  of  the  first 
week,  but  Dr.  Hulbert  was  more  than  ordinary.  It  was 
alone  his  strength  of  character,  his  unflinching  courage  and 
confidence  that  kept  him  alive  as  long  as  he  did  live."  Even 
the  day  before  his  death  he  was  better  than  he  had  been  for 
a  week,  and  his  physician  expressed  hopes  of  his  recovery. 
But  when  the  relapse  came  on,  he  said  to  his  family  gathered 
about  him:  ''This  is  the  article  of  death."  And  after  fare- 
well words,  with  their  names  on  his  lips,  "the  victorious 
Hulbert"  passed  away  peacefully  and  fearlessly  without 
even  a  bodily  tremor.  Of  his  family  there  remained  his 
wife  and  Grandma  Spencer,  for  whose  continued  welfare 
he  was  ever  solicitous ;  his  daughter,  Mrs.  A.  R.  E.  Wyant ; 
his  son,  Charles  Eri;  and  five  grandchildren — Florence 
Ethelyn  Wyant,  Elizabeth  Wyant,  Esther  Louise  Hulbert, 
Mary  Addams  Hulbert,  and  Eri  Baker  Hulbert  HI. 

It  did  not  remain  for  his  many  friends  to  put  flowers  on 
his  casket  and  speak  kind  words  to  the  ear  of  death  in  order 
to  show  their  appreciation,  but  during  his  illness  he  was 
cheered  and  sustained  by  the  many  messages  of  love  and 


12  A  Brief  Memoir  oj  Dean  Hulhert 

affection  and  hope  that  came  pouring  in  upon  him,  such  as 
this  upon  the  visiting  card  of  a  colleague :  "My  beloved 
friend  Hulbert — I  dropped  in  just  to  tell  you  that  we  are 
with  you  in  your  fight.  Our  love,  our  hopes,  our  prayers 
are  with  you." 

In  later  chapters  may  be  found  some  of  the  tributes  paid 
to  his  memory.  His  own  last  published  article  in  The 
Standard  was  a  tribute  to  Dr.  Harper  on  the  anniversary 
of  the  President's  death,  in  which  he  called  attention  to 
President  Harper's  spirit  of  Christian  fortitude  under  in- 
tense bodily  suffering  and  in  the  face  of  approaching  death. 
His  words  seem  almost  like  a  prophetic  description  of  his 
own  departure:  "If  he  was  great  as  he  stood  forth  in  the 
noonday  of  his  power,  he  was  greater  as  he  passed  down 
into  the  valley  of  the  shadow."  And  his  concluding  prayer 
was  all  too  soon  realized : 

We  who  remain  have  not  yet  been  subjected  to  the  supreme  test. 
When  that  time  comes,  may  the  final  ilhiess  show  us  working  on  while 
strength  remains,  with  a  like  constancy  and  steadiness,  and  passing 
into  the  strange,  portentous  dark  of  eternity  with  a  like  expectancy 
and  assurance. 

Let  US  who  mourn  his  departure  and  cherish  his  memory 
take  inspiration  from  his  life  and  be  faithful  in  our  work 
here  until  God  unites  us  in  the  better  service  of  the  world 
above. 


II 

A  MEMORIAL  TRIBUTE  TO  HIS   CHARACTER 


II 

A  MEMORIAL  TRIBUTE  TO  HIS  CHARACTER 

Dean  Hulbert  was  a  man  who  loved  simplicity,  and,  in 
general  keeping  with  his  wishes,  the  family  requested  that 
flowers  be  omitted  at  his  funeral.  But  many  friends  have 
offered  their  tributes  to  his  character,  and  in  this  chapter 
we  weave  them  together  into  one  great  garland  to  make 
fragrant  his  memory.  His  character  was  such  a  complex 
of  qualities  as  almost  to  elude  analysis;  so  we  shall  know 
him  better  if  we  read  the  added  testimony  of  many  who 
loved  him  as  a  friend. 

His  personality  was  so  robust  and  abounding  that  it 
never  failed  to  make  its  impression  upon  everyone  with 
whom  he  came  in  contact.  He  was  a  perfectly  unique 
character  and  possessed  a  marked  individuality.  He  was 
no  ordinary  man.  His  intense,  glowing,  vigorous  person- 
ality was  sure  to  be  noted,  even  on  first  acquaintance.  There 
was  nothing  stereotyped  or  commonplace  about  him.  He 
was  a  man  of  splendid  physical  proportions.  Stately  in 
stature  and  dignified  in  manner,  he  always  commanded  at- 
tention. There  was  something  mysteriously  magnetic  about 
his  personality. 

It  was  easy  to  see  that  he  was  a  man  of  action,  a  very 
dynamo  of  nervous  energy.  He  did  not  merely  exist  and 
move  with  routine  regularity.  His  life  was  measured  by 
quick  heart-throbs.  There  was  movement  in  his  make-up, 
and  urgency  in  his  movement.  Where  he  was  things  had 
to  "go."  His  action  and  nervous  energy  manifested  them- 
es 


1 6  A  Memorial  Tribute  to  His  Character 

selves  even  in  the  tones  of  his  voice,  sometimes  gentle  and 
tender,  then  again  breaking  forth  in  the  explosive  expres- 
sion of  some  great  truth.  Those  who  tried  to  read  in  the 
Divinity  School  library  near  his  recitation-room  sometimes 
thought  that  more  noise  rolled  out  from  under  his  door  and 
exploded  through  the  transom  window  than  was  absolutely 
necessary,  but  they  were  sure  that  something  was  doing 
that  would  not  soon  be  forgotten  by  his  pupils.  Nobody 
ever  went  to  sleep  under  his  teaching,  and  no  one  ever  called 
him  "dry-as-dust."  He  was  the  embodiment  of  a  living 
theme,  and  hence  he  made  it  live  before  his  students,  and 
made  them  feel  that  they  were  actually  eye-witnesses  of  the 
great  movements  and  achievements  of  history. 

Dr.  Hulbert  was  a  man  of  noble  enthusiasm  and  scho- 
lastic ambition.  Every  tier  of  his  intellectual  outfit  was 
aglow  with  desire  and  purpose.  What  he  knew  he  wanted 
to  know  as  near  the  core  as  possible.  He  remained  a  hard- 
working student  until  the  end  of  his  days.  On  the  back  of 
an  old  memorandum  paper  I  found  these  words  in  his  hand- 
writing: 

Oh,  how  much  I  want  lo  know,  and  there  is  very  much  I  could 
know  if  I  had  time  and  strength.  I  find  by  study  certain  things 
become  clear  which  were  obscure,  and  things  now  obscure  I  conjecture 
would  become  clear  if  I  had  the  time  to  investigate.  Is  it  to  be  sup- 
posed that  I  am  to  die  in  ignorance  of  these  things  and  never,  never 
know  them?     Is  the  ambition  to  remain  forever  unsatisfied? 

His  enthusiasm  and  ambition  for  knowledge  were  con- 
tagious and  filled  the  souls  of  his  students  with  the  same 
feelings. 

Another  characteristic,  going  with  the  former,  was  his 
open-mindedness.  He  was  hospitable  to  new  truth  from 
whatever  source,  and  would  follow  it  to  the  end.  Living  in 
an  age  of  rapid  transition,  he  appropriated  knowledge  from 


His  Moral  Courage,  Sincerity,  Frankness  17 

every  field  accessible  to  him  and  assimilated  it  as  he  appro- 
priated it.  In  the  closing  chapter  of  this  volume,  he  has 
expressed  some  of  his  own  deep  convictions  regarding  the 
spirit  which  should  animate  our  Baptist  preachers  and 
leaders. 

He  was  a  man  of  moral  courage  whom  no  threat  could 
intimidate  or  turn  from  speaking  his  mind;  no  dread  of 
censure  ever  caused  him  to  erase  a  line.  In  the  pulpit  or  on 
the  platform  he  was  a  man  with  a  message,  and  he  delivered 
it  without  fear  or  favor.  He  did  what  Bismarck  said  the 
Germans  do :  "We  fear  God,  but  none  other."  He  never 
hesitated  under  any  circumstances  to  express  his  convictions. 
And  he  always  sought  to  accomplish  his  purpose  when  he 
believed  he  was  right. 

Dean  Hulbert  was  notable  for  his  sincerity  and  frank- 
ness. Of  meanness  and  trickery  he  was  incapable.  And 
he  had  a  salutary  dislike,  amounting  to  hatred  and  con- 
tempt, for  anything  hypercritical,  hide-bound,  or  pharisaic. 
If  he  had  a  critcism  to  offer  he  would  generally  make  it 
face  to  face  with  the  man  to  whom  it  applied,  and  some- 
times with  a  frankness  and  bluntness  that  would  deceive 
one  who  did  not  know  him  well  into  supposing  that  he  was 
hard-hearted.  The  truth  was  that  with  the  natural  shrink- 
ing of  a  kind-hearted  man  from  saying  unpleasant  things, 
he  had  schooled  himself  not  to  shirk  the  task  of  honest 
truth-telling,  but  to  speak  out  without  reserve  the  things 
that  needed  to  be  said.  With  his  students  he  was  frank, 
sometimes  sharply  and  brusquely  so;  but  they  soon  learned 
that  it  was  a  part  of  the  intensity  of  the  man,  under  which 
there  was  the  kindliest  of  spirit.  It  was  simply  the  dra- 
matic in  his  make-up  that  showed  itself  every  day  with  so 
much  effect  in  the  classroom. 

He  was  also  a  lovable  man  whose  heart  ever  went  out 


1 8  A  Memorial  Tribute  to  His  Character 

in  sympathy  and  helpfulness  to  others.  No  one  ever  came 
near  to  him  and  stayed  near  long  enough  to  know  him,  but 
found  out  that  he  had  a  big,  affectionate  nature,  and  learned 
to  love  him.  How  he  could  tie  up  friends  to  his  heart  in  an 
undying  affection!  His  churches  not  only  trusted  and  ad- 
mired him  but  also  loved  and  clung  to  him  long  after  he  had 
left  them.  He  won  friends  by  being  friendly.  Among  the 
students  he  was  both  a  father  and  a  companion.  He  re- 
garded them  all  as  his  "boys,"  and  he  was  ever  ready  to  show 
a  sympathetic  and  helpful  interest  in  their  welfare. 

His  generosity  was  another  quality  with  which  many 
had  occasion  to  be  impressed.  Seemingly  always  self- 
reliant,  he  helped  many  others  with  their  burdens,  and  these 
bear  grateful  testimony  to  his  generous  kindness  shown  in 
many  ways.  He  was  generous  of  his  sympathy,  generous 
of  his  money,  generous  of  his  time.  There  was  nothing 
niggardly  about  his  giving.  When  any  student  sought  his 
counsel,  he  would  drop  his  work,  open  up  his  mind,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  become  wholly  absorbed  in  the  matter  under 
consideration.  His  large-hearted,  generous  nature  found 
apparently  the  greatest  delight  in  rendering  some  service  of 
this  kind.  And  he  did  it  in  such  a  kindly,  sympathetic,  and 
brotherly  manner  that  his  genuine  interest  was  evidenced. 

His  prudence  and  wisdom  led  him  to  seek  out  the 
minutest  details;  in  fact,  he  went  fully  into  the  merits  of 
each  case  before  he  would  give  any  counsel  whatever.  His 
insistence  on  looking  at  every  side  of  a  question,  even  the 
darkest,  seemed  somewhat  distasteful  and  apparently  un- 
necessary to  some  who  were  youthful  and  always  opti- 
mistic. But  time,  observation,  and  experience  fully 
corroborated  his  method,  and  showed  that  it  was  just  such 
a  far-reaching  vision  as  his,  which  included  the  disappoint- 
ing and  dark  areas  of  life,  that  made  him  such  a  wise 


A  Genial,  Jovial,  Manly  Christian  19 

counselor  to  his  students.  Though  impulsive  by  nature,  a 
man  in  whose  boiler  steam  was  sure  to  be  making  when  the 
fires  of  thought  were  kindled,  he  was  for  the  most  part 
tactful,  decidedly  so;  though  now  and  then  his  strong, 
impulsive  nature  might  sweep  him  beyond  the  limit  of  his 
usual  caution. 

His  genial,  jovial  disposition,  his  ready  wit,  and  keen 
sense  of  humor  will  long  be  remembered  by  his  friends. 
He  was  such  a  good  companion,  such  a  jovial  spirit,  that 
any  normal  person  would  enjoy  his  presence.  His  wit  was 
of  the  highest  and  finest  quality.  His  humor  was  genial  to 
the  last  degree.  The  funny  side  of  situations  never  escaped 
him.  He  saw  the  fun  of  history.  This  was  one  reason  why 
his  minute  presentation  of  historical  details  was  never  dull. 
His  power  in  the  classroom  lay  partly  in  the  enforcement 
of  the  most  striking  and  often  of  the  trivial  points,  by  an 
inimitable  method  of  delivery,  by  modulation  of  voice,  by 
gesture,  by  ready  wit,  by  irony,  by  sarcasm,  by  an  imperso- 
nation that  was  irresistible.  There  was  a  certain  quaint 
eloquence  in  his  teaching  which  fascinated  the  class  and 
sometimes,  when  it  approached  the  grotesque,  amused 
them.    But  it  all  made  them  remember. 

Another  thing  that  impressed  us  was  the  manliness  of 
his  religion.  He  was  a  manly  man.  There  was  nothing 
weak  or  womanish  about  him.  One  felt  when  with  him 
that  he  was  in  the  presence  of  a  strong  good  man.  He 
made  the  inevitable  impression  of  character,  virility,  power. 
He  was,  as  was  said  of  Roger  Williams,  "a  clubable  man; 
a  man  whose  dignity  did  not  petrify  us,  nor  his  saintliness 
give  us  a  chill."  Religious  cant  was  foreign  to  his  soul. 
He  shared  that  total  freedom  from  religiosity  which,  in  his 
last  published  article,  he  spoke  of  as  characteristic  of  Presi- 
dent Harper.     Our  good  dean  was  indeed  a  manly  Chris- 


20  A  Memorial  Tribute  to  His  Character 

tian,  and  his  entire  life  was  a  call  upon  all  who  knew  him  to 
manly  Christian  service. 

We  notice,  lastly,  his  cheerful  courage  and  sublime  forti- 
tude in  the  trials  of  life.  Few  men  have  passed  through 
greater  afflictions.  But  in  all  his  relations  his  Christianity 
overflowed  with  an  abounding  good  cheer,  a  buoyant  spirit, 
and  a  hopeful  courage.  He  unfailingly  displayed  a  splen- 
did joyousness.  Even  his  own  griefs  were  not  allowed  to 
disturb  the  spirit  of  his  best  friend,  if  concealment  would 
prevent  it.  Dr.  Hulbert  had  a  big  brave  heart  ready  to 
sympathize  with  others,  and  also  to  bear  when  the  burden 
of  affliction  rested  heavy  on  his  own  shoulders.  The  hearts 
of  many  have  been  touched  by  his  sorrows.  Work  is  the 
best  cure  for  many  of  our  troubles,  and  he  seemed  to  seek 
relief  in  added  service.  But  when  to  his  tasks  so  nobly  done 
and  to  this  ceaseless  inner  burden  of  heart  and  loneliness 
borne  in  silence,  there  is  added  this  uniform  radiant  inspira- 
tion of  a  cheerful  courage,  we  discover  a  sublime  heroism 
in  such  endeavor  and  the  heroic  fortitude  of  a  true  faith  in 
God.  Surely  if  ever  there  was  a  man  who  was  the  embodi- 
ment of  good  cheer  and  good  courage  amidst  the  sorrows 
of  life,  it  was  Dean  Hulbert. 


Ill 

MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 


Ill 

MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 

I.  AT  THE  FUNERAL  SERVICE  IN  MANDEL  HALL 

The  funeral  service  was  held  on  February  19,  1907.  At 
the  house  of  Mrs.  G.  S.  Goodspeed,  where  for  several  years 
he  had  made  his  home,  a  guard  of  honor  from  the  Divinity 
School  stood  by  the  casket  until  the  relatives  and  immediate 
friends  assembled  for  a  brief  service  conducted  by  Pro- 
fessor A.  K.  Parker.  The  public  service  was  held  in  Mandel 
Hall.  The  pallbearers  were :  Dean  Shailer  Mathews,  Pro- 
fessors George  B.  Foster,  Ira  M.  Price,  J.  W.  Moncrief, 
Drs.  T.  W.  Goodspeed  and  C.  E.  Hewitt,  and  Messrs.  Jesse 
A.  Baldwin  and  John  A.  Reichelt.  The  University  trustees, 
senate,  council,  and  faculties  were  on  the  platform  and  a 
large  assembly  of  students  and  friends  were  present  to 
honor  his  memory.  President  Judson  presided.  The  Scrip- 
tures were  read  by  Dean  Mathews,  also  a  selection  from 
Pilgrim's  Progress,  telling  how  Standfast  crossed  over  the 
river,  which  Dean  Hulbert  had  read  at  the  funeral  of  Presi- 
dent Harper.  Professor  Franklin  Johnson  offered  a  fer- 
vent prayer,  in  the  course  of  which  he  said : 

We  would  not  pray  for  our  brother  but  give  thanks  for  him.  He 
has  joined  the  innumerable  saints.  We  offer  prayers  for  ourselves  and 
thanks  for  his  great  life.  May  his  children  and  grandchildren  tread 
the  paths  he  has  followed  and  carry  on  his  worthy  name.  May  God 
raise  up  a  multitude  of  such  gracious  characters. 

Professor  E.  D.  Burton,  with  characteristic  clearness 
and  impressiveness,  paid  a  beautiful  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  his  colleague,  in  part,  as  follows : 

23 


24  Memorial  Addresses 

There  are  four  ambitions  that  enter  into  life,  not  to  corrupt  or 
degrade  it,  but  instead,  to  invigorate  and  ennoble  it :  the  ambition  for 
goodness,  for  learning,  for  friendship,  for  achievement.  The  desire  for 
goodness  makes  the  saint;  for  learning,  the  scholar;  for  friendship,  the 
friend,  the  lover,  the  husband,  the  father;  for  achievement,  the  man  of 
affairs,  taking  his  part  in  the  world's  life  and  helping  to  accomplish 
the  world's  tasks.  It  is  true  that  to  no  one  of  these  alone  can  we 
safely  commit  our  lives.  But  to  blend  all  these  in  one  life — goodness, 
learning,  friendship,  achievement — this  is  to  make  one's  life  a  noble 
anthem  in  which  the  deep,  strong  note  of  achievement  blends  har- 
moniously and  inspiringly  with  the  higher,  sweeter  tones  of  wisdom 
and  friendship  and  goodness.  Nor  can  we  feel  that  any  life  is  quite 
complete  that  lacks  any  one  of  these.  But  it  is  not  a  life  lacking  any 
of  these  things  that  we  are  contemplating  here.  Our  dear  friend,  whose 
departure  from  us  we  mourn,  whose  victory  we  celebrate,  was  a  man 
who  loved  goodness,  and  learning,  and  friendship,  and  achievement. 

He  loved  goodness,  and  sought  it  for  himself  and  for  others.  It 
was  no  weak  and  womanish  goodness  that  he  desired.  Piety  was  a 
word  seldom  on  his  lips.  Religiosity  was  wholly  foreign  to  his  soul. 
Full  of  life  to  his  finger  tips,  with  a  keen  appreciation  of  every  phase 
of  life,  his  goodness  was  of  a  wholly  masculine  type.  But  it  was  there. 
Deep  in  his  manly  soul  there  was  a  strong  desire  to  be  a  good  man. 
And  those  who  knew  him  most  intimately  knew  best  that  through  and 
through,  at  the  center  and  at  the  surface,  in  purpose  and  in  deed,  their 
friend  Hulbert  was  a  good  man.  And  he  loved  knowledge  too.  No 
man  among  us  was  more  hospitable  to  light,  whencesoever  derived, 
more  hopeful,  more  cheerful  in  the  presence  of  new  acquisitions  of 
truth,  even  though  these  demanded  important  reconstruction  of  pre- 
vious opinions.  He  loved  knowledge  and  feared  not  truth,  but  only 
error.  And  our  friend  loved  friends,  and  had  a  capacity  for  making 
friends  and  of  binding  them  to  him  with  bands  of  steel.  He  spoke 
out,  with  frankness  that  sometimes  seemed  unfeeling,  the 
truth  as  he  saw  it.  Those  who  did  not  know  him  well 
enough  to  understand  his  motives  were  sometimes  offended  with  such 
plainness  of  speech.  But  those  who  lived  near  to  him  came  to  prize 
his  friendship,  not  least  because  they  knew  that  from  him  they  could 
always  learn  the  whole  truth  as  he  knew  it.  To  this  frankness  he 
added  a  generosity  rarely  equaled.  Many  a  pupil  of  his  could  bear 
witness  to  the  generous  devotion  with  which  he  gave  of  his  time  and 


The  Funeral  Service  in  Mandel  Hall  25 

his  sympathy  and  his  thought,  to  understand  another's  problem  and 
to  relieve  another's  perplexity  or  distress.  Never  can  I  forget  that 
great  kindness  with  which  he  gave  to  me  four  months  out  of  his  busy 
life  to  help  me  to  regain  lost  health  and  strength.  Dr.  Hulbert  loved 
achievement  in  the  world  of  action.  Loving  learning,  I  cannot  but 
think  he  loved  yet  more  life  among  men,  the  doing  of  things  that 
needed  to  be  done,  the  achievement  of  tasks.  And  he  built  his  life  into 
the  lives  of  the  people  whom  he  served  as  pastor,  into  the  lives  of 
hundreds  of  men  who  have  passed  through  the  Divinity  School  in  the 
twenty-five  years  that  he  was  connected  with  it  as  professor  and  dean, 
into  the  lives  of  his  colleagues,  and  into  the  school  whose  work  he  has 
guided  since  it  became  a  part  of  the  University  in  1892. 

He  loved  goodness,  and  learning,  and  friendship,  and  achievement, 
and  his  goodly  ambition  in  all  these  directions  was  nobly  realized.  And 
yet  I  should  wholly  fail  to  give  an  adequate  impression  of  his  life,  fail 
to  recall  that  which  above  all  else  will  make  his  life  for  all  of  us  who 
knew  him  a  precious  memory  and  an  inspiration  to  noble  living  on  our 
own  part,  if  I  did  not  speak  a  word  concerning  his  indomitable  and 
cheerful  courage.  With  much  to  make  his  life  joyful,  there  came  also 
to  him  such  sorrow  and  loss  as  it  is  laid  upon  few  of  us  to  bear, 
grief  such  as  breaks  men's  hearts  and  crushes  out  their  courage.  He 
met  it  not  with  the  stolidity  of  an  insensitive  nature,  not  with  the 
despair  of  a  weak  nature,  not  with  the  rebelliousness  of  a  soul  that 
loses  its  faith  under  the  strain  of  sore  trial,  not  even  with  the  stoical, 
silent  endurance  of  one  who  with  set  teeth  bends  to  the  storm  and 
utters  no  word  whether  of  faith  or  of  unbelief.  Keenly  suffering  him- 
self in  the  sufferings  of  others,  and  in  his  own  pain  and  loss,  his  own 
faith  in  God  and  God's  goodness  never  wavered.  He  rose  above  his 
pain  and  loss,  and  faced  life  not  only  with  courage,  but  with  cheerful- 
ness, and  shed  about  him  not  the  gloom  of  his  own  sorrow,  but  the 
inspiration  of  his  faith  and  courage.  Such  men  never  die.  Such  a 
life  never  ends.  Its  courage,  its  faith,  its  cheerfulness,  its  unselfish- 
ness are  our  heritage,  ours  to  reproduce  and  by  reproducing  to  trans- 
mit to  those  who  come  after  us.  In  his  going  from  among  us  we 
suffer  a  loss  that  time  will  never  wholly  make  up  to  us.  But  we  sorrow 
not  as  thinking  only  of  our  loss.  We  remember  our  gain  also.  His 
life  has  been  to  many  of  us  rich  in  inspiration  and  help.  Our  herit- 
age none  can  take  from  us.  And  as  for  him — he  has  fought  his  fight, 
he  has  finished  his  course,  he  has  kept  the  faith.    Henceforth  there  is 


26  Memorial  Addresses 

laid  up  for  him  the  crown  of  righteousness  which  the  Lord  the  right- 
eous judge  will  give  to  all  them  that  have  loved  his  appearing.  In  the 
God  in  whom  he  trusted  we  also  believe.  It  is  well  with  him.  It  is 
well  with  us. 

Professor  C.  R.  Henderson  was  the  second  speaker  and 
sounded  a  note  of  cheer  and  gratitude,  rather  than  of  grief ; 
telHng,  in  his  warm-hearted,  inspiring  way,  of  the  good 
influence  of  our  departed  dean  which  would  always  remain 
with  us  and  help  us  to  devote  our  lives  in  noble  service. 
After  the  benediction  was  pronounced,  the  body  was  slowly 
borne  from  the  hall,  to  be  taken  to  its  final  resting-place  in 
the  family  burial  plot  at  Mount  Hope,  to  be  near  what  was 
mortal  of  his  lamented  daughter  Clara. 


II.    AT  THE  DIVINITY-SCHOOL  MEMORIAL  SERVICE 

On  April  i,  1907,  a  memorial  service  was  held  by  the 
Divinity  School  in  Haskell  Hall.  President  Judson  pre- 
sided. Rev.  W.  H.  McLeod  spoke,  representing  the 
students;  Dr.  A.  W.  Wishart  represented  the  alumni; 
Professor  J.  W.  Moncrief  represented  the  Divinity  School ; 
Professor  Albion  W.  Small  represented  the  University,  and 
Dr.  B.  A.  Greene  represented  the  Baptist  denomination. 
Dean  Hulbert's  fatherly  interest  in  the  students  and  his 
readiness  to  help  those  in  trouble;  his  power  in  the  class- 
room and  cautious  progressiveness  in  theology;  his  helpful 
intimacy  with  President  Harper,  and  his  abounding  cheer- 
fulness even  in  the  midst  of  sorrow,  were  emphasized.  Dr. 
Greene,  in  glowing,  graphic  phrase,  spoke,  in  part,  as 
follows : 

Just  before  Lyman  Beecher  died  some  one  bent  over  him  and  asked 
the  question:  "Do  you  remember  Dr.  Taylor?"  The  old  man  felt  a 
thrill  of  grateful  memory  and,  putting  his  hand  over  his  heart,  said: 
"Part  of  me :  part  of  me."  A  man  who  can  get  into  other 
men    and    live    in    those    other    men    like    that    is    a    mighty    power 


The  Diviniiy-ScJwol  Memorial  Service  27 

in  a  denomination;  a  power  in  any  department  of  associ- 
ated thought  and  activity.  Such  a  man  was  Dr.  Hulbert.  He  kept 
close  to  the  results  of  the  best  and  most  searching  investigation.  These 
he  tested  in  his  own  honest  thinking,  with  light  coming  from  every 
quarter;  he  tasted  their  spiritual  import  in  his  own  soul's  experience; 
then,  when  it  became  bone  of  his  bone,  flesh  of  his  flesh,  conviction  of 
his  manhood,  he  was  ready  to  speak  out  his  thought.  His  entire 
moral  nature  was  right  there,  reserve  forces  within  easy  call;  and 
every  half -ounce  of  his  physique  tingled  with  eagerness  to  help  send 
the  message  on  its  winged  way. 

Wherever  he  went  the  denomination  felt  it  was  reaching  up  into 
finer  strength;  and  the  whole  community  agreed:  "Here  is  a  big- 
hearted  brother  for  us  all."  His  quality  of  religion  helped  the  whole 
Christian  brotherhood,  and  so  made  it  more  of  an  honor  to  be  a 
Baptist.  As  a  pastor  he  touched  the  denomination,  here  and  there, 
to  quicken,  strengthen,  exalt  its  better  life,  and,  more  than  that,  to 
harness  its  activities  into  effectiveness.  Such  a  man,  not  only  by  what 
he  actually  does,  but  by  example  and  stimulus,  blesses  the  whole  de- 
nomination. There  is  nothing  stronger  in  this  world  than  a  truth- 
loving,  purposeful,  God-filled  personality.  But  now,  in  the  seminary, 
he  is  put  at  the  center  of  denominational  influence.  Classes  of  min- 
isterial students  come  before  him,  and  he  unlocks  all  his  hid  treasure 
of  learning  and  experience.  He  does  not  choke  them  with  thrusting 
down  his  theories.  He  is  full  of  whatever  he  teaches.  He  bubbles 
over  always,  like  a  spring  fed  from  the  mountains.  There  were  times, 
and  they  were  frequent,  when  his  teaching  poured  forth  as  under  mighty 
pressure  from  within.  He  made  himself  know  history.  He  lived  it  over 
in  his  soul;  he  felt  the  struggle  of  the  good  with  the  bad;  he  saw  the 
trend  of  things;  he  detected  the  push  of  God  in  among  the  pigmy 
politicians,  ecclesiastics,  and  theologians.  He  put  his  intense,  quiver- 
ing self  into  men  in  such  a  way  that  they  never  could  forget  the  teacher, 
let  them  go  to  country  or  city,  to  the  far  frontier,  or  to  China  or 
Japan.  They  carried  a  Hulbert  glow,  at  least  in  their  memory,  out 
into  the  great  denomination. 

For  years  he  was  also  a  sort  of  Baptist  bishop,  preaching  in  churches 
far  and  near.  They  liked  him,  loved  him,  admired  him,  yielded  them- 
selves up  to  the  sway  of  his  unique  style — first  quiet,  deliberate,  terse, 
lucid,  then,  before  he  got  through,  picturesque  Switzerland  with  a 
ripping  thunderstorm   thrown   in.     His   lightning  came   so   near  that 


28  Memorial  Addresses 

there  was  a  sound  like  the  tearing  of  cloth.  He  imitated  nobody.  It 
was  Hulbert  in  the  pulpit  and  no  one  else,  except  God  who  called  him 
there.  The  fear  of  God  was  before  his  eyes,  and  no  other  fear.  The 
Sunday  he  preached  in  any  church  was  a  Sunday  when  that  part  of 
the  denomination  took  an  exhilarating  tonic.  People  knew  what  he 
said  and  understood  what  he  meant.  He  was  the  antipodes  to  that 
class  of  speakers  described  by  a  quaint  writer  as  follows:  "Many 
persons  are  like  many  rivers  whose  mouths  are  at  a  vast  distance  from 
their  heads,  for  their  words  are  as  far  from  their  thoughts  as 
Canopus  from  the  head  of  the  Nile."  Not  only  did  he  preach: 
he  stood  on  the  platform  of  every  state  convention  in  the  Middle  West. 
He  was  repeatedly  called  to  speak  at  our  national  anniversaries.  Repre- 
sentative men  from  all  sections  heard  him,  and  especially  young  minis- 
ters eager  to  study  forceful  personality.  His  thoughts,  his  ideals,  his 
ethical  conviction,  his  widening  view,  made  strong  appeal.  The  Baptist 
Training  School  of  this  city,  from  which  hundreds  of  young  women 
have  gone  out  as  missionaries  all  over  the  world,  also  acknowledges 
his  invaluable  and  continuous  service.  He  has  all  these  years  given 
it  the  overflow  of  the  same  rich  life  he  gave  to  the  Divinity  School,  and 
gave  it  gratuitously. 

Associated  as  he  was  with  such  a  senior  as  Northrup,  and  such  a 
junior  as  Harper,  his  life  kept  deepening  and  widening  out.  He 
was  as  eager  to  learn  at  the  last  as  at  the  first.  Every  year  had 
a  springtime  in  his  thinking  and  his  feeling.  He  was  a  live  tree 
making  new  wood,  at  least  a  part  of  the  time.  While  there  was 
a  rugged  strength  in  the  trunk,  he  gloried  in  fresh,  smooth  bark 
where  new  buds  could  swell  into  velvety  foliage  and  fragrant 
fruit.  In  the  ripe  strength  of  his  years  he  came  to  be  dean  of  the 
Divinity  School  in  connection  with  this  great  University.  He  has 
stood  in  the  forefront,  every  intelligent  man  acknowledging  that  he 
did  not  fall  below  the  university  idea;  at  the  same  time  he  carried  in 
his  heart  the  simplicity,  the  sincerity,  the  consecration  of  a  humble 
believer  in  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  true  to  the  fontal  principles  of  his 
denomination;  therefore  he  became,  by  the  process  of  a  healthy  growth, 
a  larger  Christian,  a  roomier  Baptist,  an  intenser  lover  of  the  truth  in 
its  God-revealing  entirety.  In  fact,  he  became  a  splendid  fulfilment  of 
that  old  injunction  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne:  "Be  what  thou  vir- 
tuously art;  and  let  not  the  ocean  wash  away  thy  tincture." 


IV 

MEMORIAL  RESOLUTIONS  AND 
TESTIMONIALS 


IV 

MEMORIAL  RESOLUTIONS  AND  TESTIMONIALS 

A  worthy  memorial  of  Dean  Hulbert  could  be  made  by 
compiling  a  volume  from  the  mass  of  material  available  as 
tributes  to  his  memory.  In  addition  to  the  two  services  at 
the  University  of  Chicago,  there  were  scores  of  memorial 
services  held  all  over  the  country.  In  Baptist  schools  and 
in  several  sister  institutions  of  learning  the  minds  of  the 
students  were  inspired  by  lessons  from  his  life,  and  the 
faculties  have  given  expression  to  their  estimate  of  his 
character.  The  Baptist  ministers'  conferences  of  many 
cities  held  memorial  services  and  passed  fitting  resolutions. 
In  the  churches  which  he  served  as  pastor  and  in  the 
churches  served  by  the  hundreds  of  his  students  scattered 
all  over  the  world,  his  departure  was  the  subject  for  a 
memorial  service  or  a  special  prayer-meeting  talk,  empha- 
sizing the  noble  qualities  of  the  beloved  teacher  and  friend. 
Grateful  recognition  is  also  made  by  his  family  for  the  per- 
sonal letters  of  consoling  sympathy  received  from  many  of 
his  friends  and  associates.  It  scarcely  needs  to  be  added  that 
these  words  are  as  highly  prized  as  the  more  public  expres- 
sions in  the  religious  journals  of  various  denominations,  or 
the  few  resolutions  and  testimonials  which  the  plan  of  this 
volume  permits.  The  following  selections  are  some  of  the 
expressions  of  fellow-educators  and  preachers  giving 
especially  an  estimate  of  the  place  which  he  held  among  the 
great  teachers  of  his  day. 

31 


32  Memorial  Resolutions  and  Testimonials 

BY  THE  DIVINITY  FACULTY  AND  DIVINITY  CONFERENCE, 
AND  ADOPTED  ALSO  BY  THE  UNIVERSITY  COUNCIL 

The  members  of  the  Divinity  Faculty  and  the  Divinity  Conference 
of  the  University  of  Chicago  desire  to  place  on  record  their  deep  sense 
of  the  loss  sustained  by  the  University  in  the  death  of  their  friend 
and  colleague,  Eri  Baker  Hulbert,  February  17,  1907. 

Dr.  Hulbert  became  a  member  of  the  Faculty  of  the  Baptist  Union 
Theological  Seminary  in  1881.  He  was  the  acting  president  in  1884—85, 
and  on  the  incorporation  of  the  seminary  in  the  University  of  Chicago 
became  the  dean  of  the  newly  organized  Divinity  School.  In  that  office 
he  displayed  the  highest  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  the  school  and  of  the 
students  with  whom  he  came  in  closest  contact.  His  genial,  courageous 
spirit,  his  virile  piety,  his  wise  counsel,  his  wide  experience,  his  undi- 
vided loyalty  to  truth,  made  him  a  noble  leader  and  friend.  His  deep 
and  catholic  interest  in  all  religious,  and  particularly  in  all  denomina- 
tional advance,  was  a  potent  influence  in  the  lives  of  hundreds  of 
ministers,  and  through  them  in  the  churches  throughout  the  nation  and 
particularly  in  the  Middle  West. 

In  his  death  the  Divinity  School  has  lost  a  great  teacher  and  leader; 
the  Baptist  denomination,  a  powerful  inspiration;  and  the  church,  an 
indomitable  champion. 


BY  THE  SCANDINAVIAN   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY, 
MORGAN  PARK,  ILL. 

In  view  of  the  death  of  Eri  B.  Hulbert,  senior  dean  of  the  Divinity 
School  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  the  faculties  and  students  of  the 
Scandinavian  Seminary  desire  to  express  their  profound  realization 
of  the  loss  sustained  by  this  sad  event.  We  join  with  the  Divinity 
School  as  a  whole  in  mourning  the  loss  of  our  Senior  Dean. 

As  Scandinavians,  we  have  in  the  departure  of  Dr.  Hulbert  lost  a 
warm  friend,  a  wise  counselor,  one  deeply  interested  in  the  work  for, 
and  among,  our  nationalities,  and  the  memory  of  him  will  long  be 
cherished  and  revered  among  the  Scandinavian  Baptist  ministers  and 
churches. 

We  desire  to  convey  our  sincere  condolence  to  the  bereaved  rela- 
tives, and  we  wish  them  God's  sustaining  grace  in  a  rich  measure,  and 
a  clear  realization  of  the  blessed  hope  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 


Crozer,  Rochester,  McCormick  33 

BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  CROZER  THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARY,  CHESTER,   PA. 

The  faculty  of  the  Crozer  Theological  Seminary  desires  to  express 
its  sense  of  the  great  loss  that  the  University  of  Chicago  has  sus- 
tained in  the  death  of  Professor  Eri  B.  Hulbert.  His  long  and  efficient 
service  in  the  chair  of  church  history,  and  as  dean  of  the  Divinity 
School,  has  given  him  a  place  of  honor  in  the  history  of  American 
education ;  and  his  character  as  man  and  Christian  won  him  an  equally 
high  place  in  the  esteem  of  all  good  men.  The  members  of  this 
faculty  loved  and  honored  him  for  his  progressive  spirit,  for  his  loyalty 
to  the  truth,  for  the  zeal  with  which  he  sought  the  advancement  of 
Christian  learning  and  the  best  training  of  the  rising  ministry.  May 
God  give  us  a  succession  of  such  men  to  carry  on  the  great  work  of 
Christian  education. 

In  behalf  of  the  Faculty, 

Henry  C.  Vedder 


BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  ROCHESTER  THEOLOGICAL 

SEMINARY 

The  faculty  of  Rochester  Theological  Seminary  desires  to  express 
to  the  Divinity  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Chicago  its  sincere  sym- 
pathy and  sorrow  at  the  death  of  Dean  Eri  B.  Hulbert,  whose  many 
gifts  of  scholarship  and  of  personal  magnetism  have  provoked  admira- 
tion. God  buries  his  workmen  but  he  carries  on  his  work.  May 
Chicago  be  guided  aright  in  filling  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  death  so 
lamented  I 


BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  McCORMICK  THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARY,  CHICAGO 

The  faculty  of  McCormick  Theological  Seminary  has  heard  with 
deep  sorrow  of  the  death  of  Professor  Eri  B.  Hulbert,  D.D.  His 
genial,  strong,  and  consecrated  personality  was  appreciated  by  all  of 
us,  and  in  our  meetings  together  we  never  failed  to  be  impressed  by 
his  commanding  presence.  We  shall  miss  the  association  with  him 
which  has  been  so  pleasant  and  so  satisfying. 

Our  sympathy  goes  out  to  you  in  this  loss.  Your  ranks  have  been 
sadly  broken  into  within  recent  months,  but  those  who  have  gone  have 


34  Memorial  Resolutions  and  Testimonials 

given  such  deep  and  sincere  testimony  to  the  abiding  principles  and 
power  of  our  faith,  that  our  own  courage  must  become  the  stronger,  and 
our  realization  of  the  greatness  and  importance  of  our  mission  and 
responsibility  fuller  and  more  abiding. 


BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY  OF 
COLGATE  UNIVERSITY 

The  faculty  of  the  Theological  Seminary  of  Colgate  University 
hereby  expresses  to  you  its  sincere  sympathy  with  you  in  the  sorrow 
which  has  come  to  you  in  the  death  of  your  colleague  and  dean.  Pro- 
fessor Eri  B.  Hulbert. 

We  feel  that  his  death  is  a  loss  not  only  to  you,  but  to  the  whole 
brotherhood  of  theological  scholars,  and  to  our  entire  denomination. 

We  can  the  better  understand  your  feelings  at  the  death  of  this 
good  man,  because  he  was  for  three  years  a  student  in  our  own  college, 
and  later  a  graduate  of  our  Theological  Seminary;  and  so  was  one  of 
us,  as  well  as  one  with  you. 

We  all  have  reason  to  be  grateful  together  for  the  good  work  he 
has  done,  and  proud  of  the  record  of  a  true  and  noble  Christian  life 
which  he  has  made. 


BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  GARRETT  BIBLICAL  INSTITUTE, 
EVANSTON,  ILL. 

Dear  Professor  Mathews  :  I  have  been  requested  by  our  faculty 
to  communicate  to  you  our  sense  of  bereavement  in  the  death  of  Pro- 
fessor Hulbert.  He  was  greatly  esteemed  by  us  all,  not  only  for  his 
great  gifts  in  scholarship,  but  for  his  high  nobility  of  character,  true 
catholicity  of  spirit,  and  genuine  manliness.  May  we  through  you  offer 
to  all  his  colleagues  and  to  his  family  this  expression  of  our  sorrow 
and  sympathy. 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

Charles  M.  Stuart,  Secretary 


BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  UNION  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY, 

NEW  YORK 

Dear  Brethren:     In  behalf  of  the  faculty  of  the  Union  Theo- 
logical Seminary  I  beg  to  express  our  deep  sympathy  with  you  in  your 


Meadville,  McM aster,  Hartjord  35 

loss  through  the  death  of  Eri  Baker  Hulbert,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  head  of 
the  Department  of  Church  History  and  dean  of  the  Divinity  School. 

The  death  of  Dr.  Hulbert  is  a  personal  loss  to  us,  for  we  valued 
him  highly  as  a  colaborer  in  the  great  field  of  theological  learning  and 
education,  and  in  this  we  express  the  feeling  not  only  of  our  own 
selves  but  of  the  great  community  of  scholars. 
With  profound  respect,  I  am. 

Yours  most  sincerely, 

George  Wm.  Knox 

Acting  President 


BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  MEADVILLE  THEOLOGICAL 
SCHOOL,  MEADVILLE,  PA. 

The  faculty  of  the  Meadville  Theological  School  has  learned  with 
profound  sorrow  of  the  recent  death  of  Dr.  Eri  B.  Hulbert,  dean 
of  the  Divinity  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  a  man 
whose  character  and  scholarly  attainments  have  made  him  widely  and 
favorably  known  to  the  theologians  of  our  time.  The  Meadville 
Faculty  wishes  to  express  to  its  Chicago  brethren  its  deep  sympathy  in 
the  loss  which  the  University  of  Chicago  has  sustained. 


BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  McMASTER  UNIVERSITY, 
TORONTO,  CAN. 

The  faculty  of  McMaster  University  desires  to  express  its  sym- 
pathy with  the  Divinity  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Chicago  in  the 
sorrow  and  loss  that  have  come  to  it  in  the  death  of  Dr.  Eri  Baker 
Hulbert,  the  dean  of  the  Divinity  School,  who  was  also  teacher  and 
friend  of  members  of  our  own  faculty.  "Being  dead  he  yet  speaketh," 
through  many  pulpits  and  schools  and  in  many  lands. 


BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  HARTFORD  THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARY,  HARTFORD,  CONN. 

On  behalf  of  the  faculty  of  Hartford  Theological  Seminary,  I 
hereby  express  our  deep  sympathy  with  you  in  the  loss  by  death  of 
Eri  Baker  Hulbert,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  head  of  the  Department  of  Church 
History  and  dean  of  the  Divinity  School  in  the  University  of  Chicago. 


36  Memorial  Resolutions  and  Testimonials 

Those  of  us  who  knew  Dr.  Hulbert  personally,  who  have  felt  the 
charm  of  his  spirit  and  the  energy  of  his  will,  his  deep  earnestness  and 
his  great  ability,  recognize  the  magnitude  of  the  loss  which  has  come 
upon  you.    We  sorrow  with  you. 

Yours  sincerely, 

W.  Douglas  Mackenzie 


BY  THE  FACULTY  OF  BANGOR  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY, 
BANGOR,   ME. 

The  president  and  faculty  of  Bangor  Theological  Seminary  learn 
with  great  regret  of  the  death  of  Professor  Eri  Baker  Hulbert,  D.D., 
LL.D.  They  desire  to  extend  their  heartfelt  sympathy  to  the  Divinity 
Faculty  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  to  express  the  sense  of  loss 
that  they  themselves  feel  in  the  passing  of  such  an  eminent  scholar 
and  leader.  At  the  same  time  they  are  deeply  grateful  to  the  Father 
for  the  help  and  inspiration  that  come  to  all  workers  in  his  vineyard 
from  such  a  noble  life  of  service. 


BY    THE    EXECUTIVE    COMMITTEE    OF    THE    AMERICAN 
BAPTIST  MISSIONARY  UNION 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary 
Union  desires  to  record  its  appreciation  of  the  character  and  services 
on  behalf  of  the  Kingdom  of  the  late  Eri  B.  Hulbert,  dean  of  the 
theological  faculty  of  the  University  of  Chicago. 

Dean  Hulbert's  life-long  interest  in  the  cause  of  world-wide  mis- 
sions was  fully  recognized,  and  his  death  has  removed  from  us  one 
whose  voice  and  pen  were  ever  potent  on  behalf  of  this  great  cause. 
We  sympathize  deeply  with  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  particularly 
the  faculty  of  the  Divinity  School,  with  which  he  was  closely  identified, 
and  unite  our  prayers  with  those  of  his  many  other  friends,  that  the 
influence  of  his  life  may  ever  abide  as  a  directive  force  in  the  lives  of 
the  young  men  who  shall  enter  the  ministry  from  the  Divinity  School 
of  the  University. 

To  the  members  of  his  family,  also,  we  desire  to  express  our  deepest 
sympathy  in  this  time  of  bereavement. 


National  and  City  Conferences  37 

BY  THE  SWEDISH   BAPTIST  GENERAL  CONFERENCE  OF 

AMERICA 

Resolution  adopted  at  the  28th  annual  convention  at  Boston,  Mass., 
September  11-15,  1907. 
In  the  recent  death  of  Eri  B.  Hulbert,  D.D.,  the  General  Con- 
ference of  Swedish  Bapists  of  America  feels  that  it  has  lost  a  valuable 
friend.  He  was  always  interested  in  our  Swedish  work,  and  has  done 
much  toward  maintaining  and  developing  our  theological  school  for  the 
necessary  training  of  our  ministry.  He  helped  to  make  it  what  it  is, 
an  organic  part  of  the  Divinity  School  of  the  University  of  Chicago, 
whose  powerful  influence  toward  the  upbuilding  of  the  Baptist  denomi- 
nation is  felt  all  over  this  land,  and  in  foreign  lands  as  well.  Blessed 
be  his  memory.  We  express  to  the  bereaved  family  our  deepest 
sympathy. 


BY  THE  PASTORS'  CONFERENCE  OF  DENVER 

Resolved  that  we,  the  Baptist  pastors  of  Denver  and  vicinity, 
deeply  deplore  the  death  of  Dr.  Eri  Hulbert,  and  feel  that  in  his 
departure  the  Divinity  School  has  lost  a  most  worthy  dean,  and  a 
teacher  of  remarkable  breadth  of  view  and  catholicity  of  spirit,  and 
that  our  denomination  has  lost  from  the  ranks  of  active  workers,  a 
leader,  a  counselor,  and  a  preacher  of  conspicuous  ability. 


BY  THE  BAPTIST  MINISTERS'  CONFERENCE  OF 
SAN  FRANCISCO 

The  Conference  of  Baptist  Ministers  of  San  Francisco  and  vicinity 
has  heard,  with  profound  regret  and  with  keen  sense  of  personal  loss, 
of  the  death  of  Dean  Eri  B.  Hulbert,  of  the  Divinity  School  of  the 
University  of  Chicago.  We  desire  hereby  to  record  our  appreciation 
of  Dean  Hulbert's  great  contribution  to  the  work  of  our  denomina- 
tion on  the  Pacific  Coast,  especially  in  his  strong  pastorate  of  the 
First  Church,  San  Francisco,  in  a  time  of  crisis  and  transition;  of 
his  influence  as  a  leader  in  our  general  work  in  the  West  for  many 
years ;  and  particularly  of  his  scholarly,  brilliant,  and  inspiring  ser- 
vice as  educator  and  teacher  during  the  extended  period  of  his  labor 
in  the  seminary  at  Morgan  Park,  and  in  the  Divinity  School  of  the 
University  of  Chicago,  to  the  unique  and  permanent  value  of  which 


38  Memorial  Resolutions  and  Testimonials 

several  of  our  number  can  testify  personally.  Dean  Hulbert's  con- 
tribution to  Baptist  work  on  the  Pacific  Coast  is  recognized  to  have 
been  of  the  highest  order  of  excellence,  and  his  influence  upon  the 
lives  of  those  so  fortunate  as  to  have  been  permitted  to  sit  under  his 
personal  tuition,  an  abiding  uplift  and  benediction. 


BY  THE  BAPTIST  MINISTERS'  CONFERENCE  OF  CHICAGO 

The  Baptist  Ministers'  Conference  of  Chicago  desires  to  put  on 
record  its  appreciation  of  the  character  and  services  of  Dr.  Eri  B. 
Hulbert,  who  passed  from  the  scene  of  his  earthly  labors  on  Sunday 
morning,  February  17,  1907.  Dr.  Hulbert  was  for  many  years  a  mem- 
ber of  this  Conference  and  did  much  in  aid  of  its  influence  and  use- 
fulness. During  his  pastorate  in  Chicago,  he  lived  in  uninterrupted 
fellowship  with  his  brethren  in  the  ministry,  and  co-operated  heartily 
in  every  effort  to  advance  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord.  His  sound  judg- 
ment, the  vigor  and  clearness  of  his  thought,  the  impressiveness  of  his 
public  speech,  the  unaffected  candor  and  brotherliness  of  his  spirit 
claimed  for  him  a  leading  place  in  all  denominational  activities. 

After  entering  upon  the  important  and  engrossing  duties  of  a 
teacher  of  church  history  in  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Morgan 
Park,  later  the  Divinity  School  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  in 
which  he  held  from  the  beginning  the  responsible  office  of  dean,  he 
maintained  unabated  his  interest  in  the  Conference,  contributing  to  its 
programme  and  discussions  when  opportunity  offered,  and  sharing  still 
in  the  denominational  affairs  of  the  city. 

We  remember  gratefully  the  services  of  this  unselfish,  outspoken, 
warm-hearted  Christian  man  in  the  proclamation  and  defense  of  the 
truth,  and  his  memory  must  remain  with  all  who  knew  him,  an  incentive 
to  faithfulness.  May  strength  be  given  to  us  also  to  carry  our  burdens 
with  steadfast  courage  to  the  end. 


PART  TWO 


SOME  PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  ENGLISH 
REFORMATION 


SOME  PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  ENGLISH 
REFORMATION 

I  begin  with  two  quotations  from  Taine's  History  of 
English  Literature: 

Two  distinct  branches  receive  the  common  sap;  one  above,  the 
other  beneath :  one  respected,  flourishing,  shooting  forth  in  the  open 
air;  the  other  despised,  half  buried  in  the  ground,  trodden  under  foot 
by  those  who  would  crush  it :  both  living,  the  Anglican  as  well  as  the 
Puritan,  the  one  in  spite  of  the  care  taken  to  develop  it,  the  other  in 
spite  of  the  effort  made  to  destroy  it. 

This  sentence  is  the  text;  and  it  will  require  a  term's 
hard  work  to  expand  and  expound  this  text  into  a  sermon. 
We  shall  be  concerned  chiefly  with  the  "branch  beneath," 
"despised,  half  buried  under  ground,  trodden  under  foot" — 
the  Puritan  branch;  but  the  other  branch,  the  Anglican, 
must  likewise,  and  constantly,  engage  our  attention. 

Today's  preliminary  study  is  fittingly  introduced  by 
another  line  from  Taine.    He  says : 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  Reformation  entered  England  by  a 
side  door;  but  it  is  enough  that  it  came  in,  whatever  the  manner;  for 
great  revolutions  are  not  introduced  by  court  intrigues  and  official 
slight  of  hand,  but  by  social  conditions  and  popular  instincts.  When 
five  millions  of  men  are  converted,  it  is  because  five  millions  of  men 
wish  to  be  converted.  Let  us  therefore  leave  on  one  side  the  intrigues 
in  high  places,  the  scruples  and  passions  of  Henry  VIII,  the  plia- 
bility and  plausibility  of  Cranmer,  the  vacillations  and  basenesses  of 
Parliament,  the  oscillation  and  tardiness  of  the  Reformation,  begun, 
then  arrested,  then  pushed  forward,  then  with  one  blow  violently 
pushed  back,  then  spread  over  the  whole  nation,  and  hedged  in  by 
a  legal  establishment,  a  singular  establishment,  built  up  from  dis- 
cordant materials,  but  yet  solid  and  durable.     Every  great  change  has 

41 


42  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

its  root  in  the  soul,  and  we  have  only  to  look  close  into  this  deep  soil 
to  discover  the  national  inclinations  and  the  secular  irritations  from 
which  Protestantism  has  issued. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  array  some  of  these 
national  incHnations  and  secular  irritations,  these  popular 
instincts  and  social  conditions  which  were  the  precursors 
and  harbingers  of  the  English  Reformation. 

We  begin  with : 

THE    INFLUENCE    OF    SURVIVING    LOLLARDISM 

John  Wiclif,  the  Englishman,  was  born  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  before  Martin  Luther,  the  German.  His 
contemporaries  called  him  "the  evangelical  doctor,"  and  in 
later  times  he  was  justly  styled,  "the  morning-star  of  the 
Reformation."  With  his  most  liberal  culture,  his  highest 
intellectual  power,  his  moral  dignity  and  repose,  his  Christ- 
centered  character  and  life,  he  was  indeed  "the  greatest 
reforming  spirit  England  has  produced."  Of  the  radical 
and  essential  difference  between  Moses  and  Christ,  between 
law  and  gospel,  law  and  grace,  of  that  great  doctrine  of 
salvation — justification  by  faith  alone — ^Luther  had  a  clearer 
intellectual  apprehension,  though  not  a  deeper  heart  experi- 
ence, than  Wiclif.  In  all  other  respects  the  English  re- 
former was  farther  removed  from  Rome — stood  nearer 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  New  Testament.  Indeed,  even 
in  our  own  day,  there  are  few  Protestant  disciples  as 
thoroughly  and  consistently  scriptural  as  was  John  Wiclif. 

In  England  there  lived  a  man  five  hundred  years  ago, 
in  the  midst  of  the  darkness  and  corruption  of  the  papacy, 
who  said  that  "the  Bible  is  the  faith  of  the  church ;  though 
the  Pope  and  all  his  clerks  should  disappear  from  the  face 
of  the  earth,  our  faith  would  not  fail,  for  it  is  founded  on 
Jesus  alone,  our  Master  and  our  God;"  who  said  that  the 


Wiclifs  Views  of  the  Bible  43 

"Holy  Scripture  is  the  faultless,  most  true,  most  perfect, 
and  most  holy  law  of  God,  which  it  is  the  duty  of  all  men 
to  learn  to  know,  to  defend,  and  to  observe,  inasmuch  as 
they  are  bound  to  serve  the  Lord  in  accordance  with  it, 
under  the  promise  of  an  eternal  record."  He  held  that  the 
Bible  alone  is  the  rule  and  standard  of  Christian  faith  and 
practice.  He  believed  in  the  paramount  and  permanent, 
in  the  unconditional  and  absolutely  binding  authority  of  the 
written  word  of  God.  Church  teaching  is  not  binding,  the 
writings  of  the  fathers  are  not,  nor  is  tradition,  nor  are 
creeds  and  confessions,  nor  papal  decrees  and  canons  of 
councils.  "If  there  were  one  hundred  popes,  and  all  the 
friars  were  turned  into  cardinals,  their  opinion  ought  not 
to  be  acceded  to  in  matters  of  faith,  except  in  so  far  as  they 
base  themselves  on  Scripture."  The  inspired  book  is  the 
sole  and  all-sufficient  standard  of  appeal,  the  absolutely 
decisive  and  exclusive  and  unlimited  authority.  He  like- 
wise rejected  the  notion  that  the  doctors  of  the  church  are 
the  authorized  interpreters  of  the  book.  It  is  to  be  under- 
stood in  a  grammatical  and  common-sense  way,  in  the  use 
of  reason  and  through  divine  enlightenment.  A  devout  and 
humble  spirit  is  requisite.  "The  Holy  Ghost  instructs  us 
in  the  understanding  of  the  Scripture." 

Of  course  such  a  book,  given  for  such  a  purpose,  ought 
to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  people  in  their  mother-tongue. 

If  God's  word  is  the  life  of  the  world,  and  every  word  of  God 
is  the  life  of  the  human  soul,  how  may  any  Antichrist,  for  dread  of 
God,  take  it  away  from  us  that  be  Christian  men,  and  thus  suffer 
the  people  to  die  in  heresy  and  blasphemy  of  men's  laws,  that  cor- 
rupteth  and  slayeth  the  soul? 

This  conception  of  the  supreme  authority  of  the  Scrip- 
tures was  held,  in  part  at  least,  by  the  Waldenses  before  the 
days  of  Wiclif,  but  he  reached  his  idea  independently;  and 


44  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

the  clearness  with  which  he  discerned  it  and  the  firmness 
and  consistency  with  which  he  held  it  are  truly  astonishing. 

Controlled  by  this  conception  of  the  Bible,  Wiclif's 
theology  was  eminently  biblical.  He  stood  where  modern 
Protestant  orthodoxy  stands  respecting  the  tripersonality 
of  the  divine  nature,  and  the  works  of  God  in  creation, 
preservation,  and  providence;  respecting  the  original  state, 
apostasy,  and  consequent  ruin  of  man;  respecting  the  two 
natures  of  Christ  and  their  union  in  one  person,  and  his 
atoning  sacrifice  on  earth,  and  his  continued  mediation  and 
intercession  in  heaven,  as  opposed  to  the  pretended  inter- 
cessions of  Virgin,  saints,  and  martyrs.  Neither  Moody 
nor  Spurgeon  excelled  him  in  the  warmth  and  devoutness 
with  which  he  emphasizes  the  Passion  of  our  Lord.  "No 
one  can  be  saved  unless  he  is  washed  in  the  blood  of  Christ;" 
and  that  blood  has  boundless  power,  reaching  in  its  effect 
"forwards  to  the  world's  end,  and  backwards  to  the  world's 
beginning." 

In  view  of  this  redeeming  love  of  God  in  Christ,  ought 
not  men  to  forsake  their  sins,  and  welcome  and  embrace 
this  saving  grace  of  the  Redeemer?  Both  repentance  and 
faith  are  indispensable.  But  the  repentance  must  be  genuine, 
no  mere  outward  doing  of  penance;  and  to  be  genuine  it 
must  be  sincere  and  heartfelt  and  fruitful.  All  is  vitiated 
if  the  penitent  is  acting  a  part,  if  his  very  soul  is  not  engaged, 
if  a  changed  life  does  not  follow. 

Faith,  too,  is  needful.  Faith  is  a  knowledge  and  recog- 
nition of  the  truths  of  Christianity  (largely  a  matter  of  the 
intellect).  Faith,  too,  is  a  loving  obedience  to  the  law  of 
Christ,  an  imitation  of  the  divine  Redeemer  (the  very  sub- 
stance of  Christian  morality,  a  matter  pre-eminently  of  the 
heart  and  life).  To  Luther  must  be  given  the  crowning 
honor  of  finding  in  the  New  Testament  a  third  conception 


His  Views  of  Good  Works  and  the  Church  45 

of  faith  which  Widif  did  not  as  clearly  discern:  faith 
viewed  as  that  one  act  of  the  whole  moral  being  by  which 
the  sinner  accepts  and  embraces  Jesus  Christ  as  his  own 
present,  perfect,  and  precious  Savior. 

In  the  church  in  which  Wiclif  was  born  and  reared,  the 
merit  of  good  works  was  a  theme  of  endless  laudation. 
Wiclif  quoted  the  words  of  Christ:  "When  ye  have  done 
all,  then  say,  we  are  unprofitable  servants."  Cannot  a  man 
merit  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins  by  good  works?  No. 
Granted  that  grace  is  requisite  to  conversion,  cannot  a  man 
by  his  good  works  merit  the  gift  of  that  grace?  No.  After 
he  is  converted,  cannot  a  man  by  good  works  merit  the 
blessedness  of  heaven?  No.  Cannot  a  converted  man  do 
his  duty,  and  then  a  little  more,  and  have  this  little  more 
placed  to  his  credit?  No.  What  becomes,  then,  of  super- 
erogation, of  this  boundless  treasure  of  surplus  merit  which 
it  belongs  to  the  Pope  to  administer?  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  supererogation,  and  the  Pope's  administration  of 
it  is  a  "lying  fiction." 

Wiclif 's  superiority  to  Luther  and  to  modern  Protes- 
tantism is  most  clearly  exhibited  in  his  doctrine  of  the 
church — its  nature,  ofhcers,  worship,  and  ordinances.  He 
rejected  and  stoutly  opposed  the  position  of  Cyprian  out 
of  which,  later,  the  papal  theory  was  evolved — the  position 
that  the  church  is  that  visible,  external  organization  which 
began  with  the  apostles  and  continues  with  an  unbroken 
series  of  bishops  as  their  successors,  inside  of  which  all  are 
saved,  and  outside  of  which  there  is  no  salvation.  Con- 
trariwise, the  church  of  Christ  is  the  whole  company  of 
regenerate  persons  in  all  times  and  ages — those  in  heaven, 
the  church  triumphant,  those  on  earth,  the  church  militant; 
and  all  together  the  body  of  the  elect,  the  Bride  of  Christ. 
There  are  two  classes  of  men,  the  elect    (the  only  true 


46  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

church),  and  the  reprobate.  In  the  visible  Catholic  church 
the  reprobate  may  hold  the  highest  official  trust,  and  the 
visible  Catholic  church  may  excommunicate  the  very  chosen 
of  the  Lord.  Besides  this  general,  invisible  host  of  God's 
elect,  there  are  the  smaller,  local  companies  of  regenerate 
persons,  the  individual  churches,  as  distinguished  from  the 
church  universal.  When  Wiclif  says  that  "the  church  is 
an  assembly  of  predestinated  persons,"  and  again  that  "the 
church  is  a  congregation  of  just  men  for  whom  Christ 
shed  his  blood,"  he  expresses  exactly  the  Baptist  view. 

In  the  matter  of  the  officers  of  the  church  the  existing 
arrangements  are  totally  at  variance  with  the  teaching  of 
the  New  Testament.  In  the  New  Testament  this  sharp 
distinction  between  the  clergy  and  the  laity  cannot  be  found. 
In  the  New  Testament  this  multiplicity  of  dignitaries — sub- 
deacons,  deacons,  archdeacons,  priests,  monks,  canons, 
friars,  bishops,  pardoners,  archbishops,  cardinals,  popes, 
and  what  not,  cannot  be  found.  As  for  the  Pope,  he  has 
vaulted  into  Christ's  place,  and  is  none  other  than  Anti- 
christ. In  the  New  Testament  this  denying  marriage  to  the 
clergy  and  this  enforced  support  of  them  by  prevailing 
methods  cannot  be.  found.  In  the  New  Testament  clergy 
and  laity  alike  are  called  of  God,  and  are  alike  his  kings 
and  priests.  In  the  New  Testament  the  mmiber  of  offices 
in  the  church  is  two,  no  more,  that  of  bishop,  presbyter,  or 
pastor,  and  that  of  deacon.  Bishop  and  presbyter  are  the 
same,  interchangeable  terms  to  designate  one  office.  Enfor- 
cing celibacy  upon  these  men  is  unscriptural  and  hypo- 
critical and  pernicious;  and  their  support  ought  to  come 
from  the  voluntary  offerings  of  the  people. 

In  the  matter  of  worship  there  now  prevails  a  still  more 
damaging  departure  from  New  Testament  simplicity.  This 
devotion  to  martyrs,  this  adoring  of  relics,  these  festivals  to 


His  Views  of  Worship  and  the  Sacraments  47 

saints,  these  pilgrimages  to  shrines,  these  masses  for  the 
dead,  and  these  prayers  to  Mary  fall  not  short  of  open 
idolatry.  Offensive  to  God  are  these  gorgeous  ceremonials, 
these  appeals  to  the  sensuous  nature,  these  glittering  robes 
and  gilded  trappings,  lights  and  censers,  and  genuflections, 
and  processionals,  and  all  the  rest.  The  senses  are  intoxi- 
cated and  the  soul  is  left  to  die.  Not  so  ought  the  church 
to  worship  God.  Above  all  things  the  worship  ought  to  be 
simple,  direct,  devout,  and  earnest,  suited  to  the  spiritual 
needs  of  men,  and  "able  to  supply  their  souls  with  whole- 
some refreshment  from  the  eternal  fountain;"  and  to  this 
end,  in  the  house  of  God  preaching  ought  to  have  the  con- 
spicuous place;  a  preaching  drawn  from  God's  word,  and 
opening  up  Bible  thoughts  and  applying  them  to  life;  not  a 
preaching  taking  its  material  from  civil  and  natural  history, 
or  recounting  the  legends  and  lying  miracles  of  the  church, 
or  rehearsing  the  tales  and  fables  which  fill  the  pages  of 
profane  antiquity.  Perhaps  such  preaching  will  tickle  the 
ears  of  worldlings,  but  it  will  never  win  a  soul  to  Christ. 
And  again  it  must  be  a  preaching  from  the  Bible  truly 
interpreted,  not  an  unauthorized,  fanciful,  allegorical  inter- 
pretation. The  very  Bible  must  be  preached,  else  the  preach- 
ing is  defective,  saints  are  not  edified,  sinners  are  not 
converted,  and  God  is  not  worshiped.  Wiclif  was  himself 
a  mighty  preacher,  and  he  wrote  a  treatise  on  The  Art  of 
Pulpit  Discourse,  and  he  had  every  gift  for  a  modern  chair 
of  homiletics. 

The  sacraments  of  the  church  are  not  seven,  but  two — 
Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper.  Baptism  does  not  wash 
away  sins;  it  is  the  symbol  of  sins  already  washed  away. 
Hence  the  ordinance  is  designed  for  regenerate  men;  it  is 
not  designed   for  infants.     The  babes  are  saved  without 


48  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

baptism.  Without  spiritual  baptism  water  baptism  is  value- 
less. 

The  Romish  doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper  is  the  master- 
piece of  Satan.  The  mass  is  the  most  monstrous  perversion 
of  Bible  truth  the  ages  have  produced.  Transubstantiation 
is  simply  diabolical.  The  Scriptures  know  nothing  of  it; 
even  tradition  does  not  uphold  it;  the  senses  flatly  contra- 
dict it;  it  is  most  ruinous  in  its  consequences.  It  is  an 
awful  blasphemy  to  hold  that  a  priest  can  make  God. 

Here,  then,  we  find  a  man  whose  life-work — both  de- 
structive and  constructive — was  of  the  first  magnitude. 
On  the  destructive  side,  he  rejected  and  denounced  the 
Pope,  the  hierarchy,  the  outward  visible  Catholic  church, 
sacerdotalism,  sacramentarianism,  transubstantiation,  super- 
erogation, monkery,  celibacy,  ritualism,  relics,  images, 
pilgrimages,  penances,  indulgences,  and  all  the  other  rags 
of  popery.  On  the  constructive  side,  he  proclaimed  the 
supremacy  of  the  Bible,  the  sole  headship  and  authority  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  necessity  of  faith,  repentance,  and  holy 
living,  the  simplicity  and  purity  of  worship,  the  original 
form  and  intent  of  the  ordinances,  the  New  Testament 
pattern  of  the  Christian  church.  This  is  the  man  who 
inaugurated  that  extensive  reaction  against  the  papacy 
which  issued  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  later  in  the  English 
Reformation.  He  did  this  by  his  Oxford  lectures,  by  his 
parliamentary  career,  by  his  patriotic  resistance  to  the 
encroachments  of  Rome,  by  his  pulpit  efforts,  by  his  order 
of  itinerant  preachers,  by  his  English  translation  of  the 
Scriptures,  by  his  attacks  on  transubstantiation  and  the 
flagrant  errors  of  Rome,  by  his  scriptural  theology,  and  by 
his  stainless  life. 

John  Wiclif  is  the  fountain-head  of  two  streams  of 
influence  which  have  blessed  the  world.     We  trace  the  one 


Wiclips  Folloivers,  the  Lollards  49 

through  John  Huss,  the  Taborites,  the  Bohemian  and 
Moravian  Brethren,  the  Wesleys  and  Wesleyanism,  the 
evangeHcal  revival  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  great 
missionary  movement  of  modern  times.  With  this  we  are 
not  now  concerned. 

The  other  flowed  between  EngHsh  banks  and  lost  itself 
at  last  in  that  larger  stream  which  we  call  the  English  Refor- 
mation. The  followers  of  Wiclif  multiplied  with  amazing 
rapidity.  While  he  yet  lived,  it  was  said  that  "if  two  per- 
sons met  on  the  road,  one  of  them  was  sure  to  be  a 
Wiclifite."  All  England  was  permeated  with  his  doctrine 
and  spirit.  The  Reformation  might  have  come  then  if  the 
times  had  been  ripe.  But  his  teachings  were  in  advance  of 
his  age,  and  his  followers — the  Lollards  as  they  were  called 
— fell  upon  evil  times.  The  Council  of  Constance  con- 
demned all  Lollard  writings,  and  by  its  decree  the  remains 
of  the  great  reformer  were  dug  from  their  resting-place 
and  burnt  to  ashes,  and  these  were  cast  into  the  Swift,  a 
neighboring  brook  running  hard  by.  This  brook,  as  Fuller 
says,  "conveyed  his  ashes  into  Avon;  Avon  into  Severn; 
Severn  into  the  narrow  seas ;  they  into  the  main  ocean.  And 
thus  the  ashes  of  Wicif  are  the  emblem  of  his  doctrine, 
which  now  is  dispersed  all  the  world  over." 

The  Avon  to  the  Severn  runs, 

The  Severn  to  the  Sea; 
And  Wiclif's  dust  shall  spread  abroad 

Wide  as  the  waters  be. 

The  disciples  fared  no  better  than  their  master.  Their 
meetings  were  broken  up,  their  books  destroyed,  their  per- 
sons seized  and  slain.  Their  utter  extermination  was  fiercely 
sought.  Nevertheless,  men,  holding  the  views  of  Wiclif 
and  sharing  his  spirit,  were  hid  away.  They  secretly  met 
for  fellowship  and  prayer;  secretly  transcribed  and  circu- 


L^ 


50  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

lated  their  books;  secretly  increased  their  number  of 
adherents.  Their  hiding-places  were  discovered;  their 
writings  destroyed ;  their  bodies  reduced  to  ashes.  We  learn 
of  them  chiefly  through  these  trials  and  burnings. 

They  lived  unknown 
Till  persecution  dragged  them  into  fame 
And  chased  them  up  to  heaven.    Their  ashes  flew — 
No  marble  tells  us  whither.    With  their  name 
No  bard  embalms  and  sanctifies  his  song; 
And  history,  so  warm  on  meaner  themes, 
Is  cold  on  this. 

At  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation,  before  Luther  had  raised 
his  voice,  they  were  still  in  England,  suppressed,  scattered, 
harassed,  pillaged,  destroyed — a  numerous  people,  though 
hidden  and  proscribed.  At  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII  the  bishops  were  still  burning  their  books  and 
bodies. 

The  extent  of  their  influence  in  preparing  the  English 
nation  for  the  revolt  against  Rome,  it  is  impossible  accu- 
rately to  measure.  Froude  thinks  that  Lollardism  had  gradu- 
ally lost  its  power  in  the  course  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
but  it  seems  more  reasonable  and  historical  to  connect  that 
marked  Christian  revival  among  the  peasantry  and  London 
tradesmen,  which  sprang  up  before  Luther  had  been  heard 
of,  with  the  still  unextinguished  spirit  of  the  followers  of 
Wiclif.  It  was  a  fresh  religious  interest  which  had  all  the 
characteristics  of  that  earlier  movement.  Lollardism  was 
doing  its  subtle  and  effectual  work  in  many  English  hearts. 
It  was  exposing  the  corrupt  formalism  of  the  reigning 
church;  breeding  a  discontent  with  the  tyranny  of  priests; 
making  known  the  truth  and  spirit  of  the  word  of  God; 
exhibiting  in  regenerate  lives  the  peace  and  beauty  of  the 
Christian  faith;  and  in  many  ways  preparing  the  nation's 


The  Renaissance  51 

conscience  for  that  revolution  which  forever  broke  Eng- 
land's thraldom  to  the  papal  throne.  When  at  last  the 
Reformation  came,  thousands  of  hearts  were  ready  for  it 
— made  ready  through  Lollard  influence — and  ready  for  a 
more  radical  change  than  kings  and  dignitaries  would  give 
them.  And  subsequently  when  queens  and  bishops  were  set 
on  making  English  Christianity  a  disguised  Romanism,  and 
forcing  all  Englishmen  into  an  Anglo-catholicism,  it  was 
this  same  spirit  of  Lollardism  that  resisted  to  the  death,  and 
broke  out  afresh  in  Puritanism  and  non-conformity  and 
separatism  and  independency — the  very  spirit  that  still  sur- 
vives in  the  dissenting  bodies  of  the  British  Empire. 

We  turn  now  to  another  preparation  for  the  English 
Reformation,  and  name,  secondly: 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  REVIVAL  OF  LEARNING 

Lollardism  wrought  chiefly  among  the  common  people; 
Humanism  reached  the  educated  classes.  The  Lollards  went 
to  the  shops  and  farms;  the  Humanists  entered  the  univer- 
sities and  palaces. 

The  collapse  of  the  eastern  Roman  Empire  dates  from 
the  fall  of  Constantinople  into  the  hands  of  the  Ottoman 
Turks  in  1453.  This  date  also  marks  the  revival  of  ancient 
classical  learning  in  western  Europe.  Greek  scholars,  bring- 
ing with  them  their  literary  treasures,  sought  refuge  in  the 
West,  especially  in  Italy ;  and  at  Florence  found  in  the  reign- 
ing family  of  the  Medici  powerful  friends  and  enthusiastic 
patrons.  The  long-neglected  study  of  Greek  and  Latin 
authors  was  renewed.  The  classical  writings,  and  remains 
of  antiquity  of  whatever  sort,  in  which  the  East  abounded, 
were  eagerly  sought,  being  accounted  the  most  precious  of 
treasures.  The  Latin  MSS,  buried  in  the  dust  and  rubbish 
of  the  western  monasteries,  were  searched  for,  discovered, 


52  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

accurately  copied,  often  stolen.  Classical  libraries  and 
Platonic  academies  were  established.  Dictionaries,  gram- 
mars, translations,  commentaries,  were  multiplied.  Litera- 
ture, architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  music — the  souls  of 
men  were  suddenly  on  fire  for  these  things.  It  was  an 
intellectual  awakening ;  an  absorbing  passion  for  the  ancient 
culture;  a  revival  of  letters ;  a  new-birth  of  the  human  mind. 
Those  were,  indeed,  eventful  times. 

I.  It  was  the  time  of  the  invention  of  printing;  of  the 
substitution  of  cheap  linen  and  cotton  paper  in  the  place  of 
expensive  parchment  also.  The  poor  could  have  books. 
The  dissemination  of  knowledge  was  made  possible  by  the 
use  of  movable  types.  The  year  1456  saw  the  Latin  Bible 
in  print;  and  before  the  end  of  the  century  there  were 
ninety-one  different  editions  of  it  in  circulation.  In  less 
than  twenty  years  after  the  publication  of  the  Vulgate  there 
were  more  than  a  hundred  European  cities  in  which  the 
printing-press  was  in  operation ;  and  in  less  than  fifty  years 
thereafter  there  were  more  than  a  thousand  presses  turning 
out  all  sorts  of  books.  In  1476  the  first  Greek  grammar  was 
printed,  and  in  1480  the  first  Greek  lexicon.  In  1477  the 
Hebrew  Psalter  was  put  into  type,  and  in  1488  the  entire 
Hebrew  Bible,  a  Hebrew  grammar  following  in  1503,  and 
a  Hebrew  lexicon  in  1506. 

William  Caxton  introduced  the  art  into  England.  At 
Cologne,  in  1471,  he  translated  the  histories  of  Troy  from 
French  into  English,  and  put  the  translation  into  book  form. 
This  was  the  first  book  ever  printed  in  the  English  language. 
Three  years  later  in  England,  in  1474,  he  published  a  work 
entitled  The  Game  and  Play  of  Chess.  This  was  probably 
the  first  book  ever  printed  in  England.  This,  however,  has 
been  disputed.  In  the  Bodleian  library  there  is  the  copy  in 
Latin  of  an  exposition  of  St.  Jerome  bearing  the  imprint 


First  Printing  and  Maritime  Discoveries  53 

"Oxonie  M.  CCCC.  LXVIII"  (1468).  If  this  date,  1468, 
is  correct,  then  the  Oxford  Press  can  claim  the  glory  of 
having  printed  the  first  book  in  England.  But  there  are 
those  who  deny  that  this  exposition  of  St.  Jerome  was  the 
first  book  printed  in  England.  They  assert  that  an  "X" 
was  left  out  of  the  date;  that  it  ought  to  have  been  1478 
instead  of  1468.  If  this  is  true  then  the  book  issued  from 
Caxton's  press  at  Westminster  in  1474  antedates  the  book 
from  the  Oxford  Press  by  four  years. 

In  1 5 16  Erasmus  produced  his  Greek  New  Testament — 
the  first  edition  ever  printed — with  a  corrected  Latin  version 
and  notes.  Between  1470  and  1500  more  than  ten  thousand 
editions  of  books  and  pamphlets  were  published,  including, 
in  noble  tomes,  the  works  of  Virgil,  Cicero,  Sallust,  Homer, 
Aristotle,  Plato,  Sophocles,  Xenophon,  Plutarch,  and  many 
other  classic  authors.  A  new  intellectual  era  had  dawned, 
and  by  means  of  the  printing-press  the  new  learning  was 
everywhere  disseminated. 

2.  It  was  the  time  of  maritime  discoveries.  The 
mariner's  compass  had  come  into  use,  and  navigators  could 
safely  venture  out  of  sight  of  land.  In  i486  Diaz  skirted 
the  African  coast  and  reached  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  In 
1492  Columbus  discovered  the  New  World.  In  1497  John 
Cabot  sailed  along  the  North  American  shore  for  900  miles ; 
and  in  1498  Sebastian  Cabot  coasted  from  Labrador  to 
Florida.  In  1498  De  Gama  dropped  anchor  in  the  harbor 
of  Calcutta.  In  15 13  Balboa,  from  the  Isthmus  of  Panama, 
discovered  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  1520  Magellan  sailed 
around  South  America  to  the  East  Indies,  thence  to  Europe, 
thus  circumnavigating  the  globe.  He  died  in  the  Philip- 
pine Islands,  but  his  ships  reached  home.  The  faith  of  men 
in  the  sciences  which  they  had  learned  was  shaken;  their 
imaginations    were    stimulated;    the  boundaries    of    their 


54  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

knowledge  were  widened;  a  new  hemisphere  was 
added  to  the  Old  World,  which  brought  a  corresponding 
enlargement  of  conception  and  ambition.  Over  men's  heads 
were  new  heavens,  for  the  sailors  had  seen  new  constella- 
tions and  beneath  men's  feet  there  was  a  new,  a  wonderful 
globe — not  a  disk  but  a  sphere. 

3.  It  was  the  time  of  the  revival  of  letters  and  of  art. 
With  Florence  as  its  center  and  the  Medici  as  its  patrons, 
the  ancient  classical  literature  was  swaying  and  charming 
the  minds  of  men  as  in  the  palmiest  days  of  Athens.  The 
MSS  of  the  old  orators,  philosophers,  and  poets  were 
brought  from  afar,  were  printed  in  sumptuous  editions,  and 
were  studied  with  rapturous  delight.  Cosimo  de  Medici  was 
founding  his  library  and  the  Platonic  Academy,  Lorenzo 
the  Magnificent,  his  grandson,  was  making  his  court  the 
most  brilliant  and  polished  in  the  world,  filling  Florence  with 
books,  pictures,  and  statues,  and  making  it  the  home  of 
scholars,  artists,  and  sculptors.  Sharing  his  patronage  were 
Facino,  the  head  of  the  academy,  claiming  to  harmonize 
Platonic  idealism  and  Christian  doctrine ;  Politian,  "the  most 
brilliant  Latin  poet  of  the  day,"  directing  the  studies  of 
Lorenzo's  children  and  exchanging  Greek  epigrams  with 
learned  ladies  of  the  court;  and  Pico  Mirandola,  the  great- 
est linguist  of  that  age,  who,  when  only  twenty-three  years 
old,  challenged  all  the  learned  men  of  Europe  to  debate  with 
him  on  nine  hundred  disputed  opinions  in  philosophy. 
There,  too,  in  Lorenzo's  palace,  was  Michael  Angelo  doing 
his  immortal  work  with  brush  and  chisel — that  great  genius 
equally  worthy  as  a  painter,  a  sculptor,  an  architect,  a  poet, 
and  a  Protestant  before  Protestantism.  These  and  a  whole 
galaxy  of  kindred  spirits  were  men  who  had  only  contempt 
for  the  barbarous  Latin  of  the  monks,  for  the  ignorance  of 
the  clergy,   for  the  dry  and  profitless  discussions  of  the 


The  Moral  Condition  at  Rome  55 

schoolmen,  for  the  formaHsm  and  hypocrisy  of  the  church. 
Platonism  seemed  so  much  higher,  sweeter,  purer,  worthier 
than  Christianity,  that  they  were  almost  prepared  to  discard 
the  latter  in  their  enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  former. 

4.  It  was  the  time  of  the  Borgias  in  the  papacy.  Rome 
was  in  moral  putri faction.  The  popes  were  the  vilest  of 
men.  Alexander  VI  and  Caesar  and  Lucretia  Borgia  are 
the  synonyms  of  all  that  is  diabolical.  The  papacy  never 
reached  a  lower  depth.  Luther  paid  his  celebrated  visit  to 
Rome  at  a  later  date,  and  when  the  papacy  was  not  so  bad ; 
but  hear  his  words : 

I  would  not  for  a  thousand  florins  have  gone  without  seeing  Rome.  I 
should  always  have  doubted  whether  I  was  doing  injustice  to  the  Pope. 
The  crimes  of  Rome  are  incredible;  no  one  will  credit  so  great  a  per- 
versity who  has  not  the  witness  of  personal  knowledge.  There  reign  all 
the  villanies  and  infamies,  all  the  atrocious  crimes,  in  particular  con- 
tempt of  God,  perjuries,  sodamy.  We  Germans  swill  liquor  enough  to 
split  us,  whilst  the  Italians  are  sober.  But  they  are  the  most  impious  of 
men;  they  make  a  mock  of  true  religion.  There  is  a  saying  in  Italy 
which  they  make  use  of  when  they  go  to  church,  "Come  and  let  us  con- 
form to  the  popular  error."  The  Italians  are  either  Epicureans  or 
superstitious.  They  live  ignorant  of  God's  Word,  not  believing  in  the 
resurrection,  nor  life  everlasting,  and  fearing  only  temporal  evils.  Their 
blasphemy  also  is  frightful,  and  the  cruelty  of  their  revenge  is  atro- 
cious. They  are  men  without  conscience,  who  live  in  open  sin,  and 
make  light  of  the  marriage  tie. 

Were  there  time,  this  awful  indictment  might  be  veri- 
fied by  a  thousand  facts.  Taine,  speaking  of  the  papacy  in 
the  last  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  says,  "Treasons,  assassi- 
nations, tortures,  open  debauchery,  the  practice  of  poisoning, 
the  worst  and  most  shameless  outrages  were  unblushingly 
and  publicly  tolerated  in  the  open  light  of  heaven."  In 
1490  the  Pope  revoked  a  decree  forbidding  the  keeping  of 
concubines,  saying  that  "that  was  not  forbidden,  because 
the  life  of  priests  and  ecclesiastics  was  such  that  hardly  one 


56  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

was  to  be  found  who  did  not  keep  a  concubine,  or  at  least 
who  had  not  a  courtesan."  Caesar  Borgia  at  the  capture  of 
Capua  "chose  forty  of  the  most  beautiful  women,  whom 
he  kept  for  himself."  Under  Alexander  VI,  says  a  con- 
temporary writer,  "all  ecclesiastics  from  the  greatest  to  the 
least  have  concubines  in  the  place  of  wives,  and  that  publicly. 
Almost  all  the  monasteries  of  the  town  have  become  baud- 
houses,  and  without  anyone  to  speak  against  it."  A  cata- 
logue of  the  crimes  and  cruelties  and  obscenities  of 
Alexander  VI  would  fill  a  volume.  He  had  mothers  and 
their  own  daughters  for  his  mistresses;  lived  on  terms  of 
criminal  intimacy  with  his  own  daughter;  joined  in  the  most 
frightful  orgies  with  his  own  children,  Caesar  and  Lucretia; 
and  spent  his  most  valuable  time  in  providing  for  his 
numerous  bastards.  Caesar  Borgia  murdered  his  own 
brother;  so  stabbed  his  father's  favorite  that  the  blood  of 
the  dying  man  spurted  into  the  Pope's  face ;  and  was  guilty 
of  almost  countless  assassinations.  Hell  itself  cannot  sur- 
pass the  Rome  of  the  Borgias. 

5.  It  was  the  time  of  the  great  Italian  reformer, 
Savonarola.  He  saw  the  corruption  of  both  Rome  and 
Florence,  and  his  soul  was  moved.  Against  both  the  Pope 
and  Lorenzo  he  raised  his  voice — the  most  eloquent  voice 
Italy  ever  had.  He  longed  to  see  Rome  pure  and  Florence 
free.  He  knew  his  Bible  literally  by  heart,  and  its  spirit, 
not  less  than  its  letter,  filled  all  his  soul.  It  made  him  a 
Bible  Christian,  and  gave  him  a  Bible  view  of  both  religion 
and  politics.  Hence,  in  burning  words  he  denounced  the 
corruptions  of  the  times,  and  called  popes  and  princes  to 
repentance.  He  saw  in  Lorenzo  a  man  who  had  robbed 
Florence  of  her  liberties,  a  man  of  exquisite  taste  and  profli- 
gate life;  who  could  write  beautiful  sonnets  to  virtue  by  day 
and  break  with  virtue  by  night;  a  man  with  the  magnificence 


Savonarola  at  Florence  57 

of  Milton's  Satan,  sagacious  and  cruel,  cultivated  and  cor- 
rupt, a  paganized  votary  of  letters  and  of  vice,  a  scholar,  a 
tyrant,  and  a  rake — a  splendid  fiend.  He  saw  Lorenzo  die ; 
saw  Charles  VIII  invade  the  city ;  saw  the  Medici  expelled ; 
saw  himself  raised  to  supreme  power;  for  three  years  saw 
Florence  the  most  godly  of  cities;  saw  over  his  pulpit  the 
motto:  "Jesus  Christ  the  king  of  Florence;"  saw  enemies 
reconciled,  unrighteous  gains  restored,  godless  sports 
abandoned,  obscene  books,  statues,  and  pictures  burned, 
incontinence  and  debauchery  done  away,  truth  and  purity 
prevailing,  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost 
— a  little  heaven  on  earth.  Then  the  Borgias  learn  that 
Savonarola  thinks  to  reform  all  Italy,  Alexander  VI 
orders  him  to  Rome;  forbids  him  to  preach;  excommuni- 
cates him;  incites  the  Franciscans  against  him;  plots  with 
the  Florentines  to  compass  his  ruin;  at  last  gains  his  end, 
and  the  great  reformer,  the  Italian  patriot,  the  savior  of 
Florence,  the  saintliest  man  in  all  Italy,  is  arrested,  im- 
prisoned, tried  as  a  heretic  and  impostor,  tortured  to  the  dis- 
jointing of  his  bones,  hanged  to  a  gibbet,  and  burned  to 
ashes ;  and  with  the  death  of  their  truest  friend,  their  ablest 
statesman,  their  loftiest  preacher,  their  noblest  Christian, 
Florence  and  Italy  sink  back  into  slavery  and  rottenness. 

Bear  in  mind  that  I  am  describing  the  times  just  pre- 
ceding the  advent  of  Martin  Luther.  They  were,  indeed, 
eventful  times.  The  printing-press  was  beginning  its 
marvelous  career.  The  mariners  were  bringing  new  worlds 
into  view.  The  Medici  were  introducing  ancient  Greece 
and  Rome  to  European  scholars.  The  Borgias  were  drag- 
ging the  church  into  the  bottomless  depths  of  infamy. 
Savonarola,  with  the  voice  of  an  old  Hebrew  prophet,  was 
warning  a  godless  world  of  the  doom  which  awaited  it.  It 
was  the  opening  of   a  new  era.      New   ideas,   motives, 


58  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

ambitions,  were  swaying  the  minds  of  men.  The  narrow- 
ness and  limitations  of  the  past  were  giving  way.  While 
the  encroachments  of  Mohammedanism  were  narrowing  the 
domain  of  Christendom,  the  new  geographical  discoveries 
were  broadening  it.  A  new  order  of  things  was  coming 
in ;  a  new  day  was  dawning.  The  ecclesiastical  system  was 
losing  its  monopoly  of  the  wealth,  the  learning,  and  the 
political  power  of  the  world.  The  church  was  no  longer 
the  sole  tribunal  of  opinion.  Mental  freedom  was  begin- 
ning. The  scholastic  system  was  losing  its  grip,  and  could 
no  longer  control  intelligence,  nor  rivet  its  shackles  on 
religion  and  science.  The  feudal  system  was  going  to  pieces, 
and  the  peasantry  were  rising  into  freedom.  The  era  of 
authority  was  going  out ;  the  era  of  individualism  was  com- 
ing in.  A  national  spirit  was  taking  the  place  of  the 
churchly  spirit;  and  Germany,  France,  Spain,  and  England 
were  rising  into  power. 

But  in  what  way  is  all  this  preparing  England  for  the 
Protestant  Reformation?  Let  us  see.  While  Florence  was 
mastering  the  Greek  tongue,  and  through  the  Greek  tongue 
was  reviving  the  old  Greek  life,  Greek  thought,  Greek  cul- 
ture, Greek  art,  Greek  philosophy,  and  through  this  revival 
was  breaking  the  mental  bondage  of  Europe,  and  was  send- 
ing men  everywhere  in  quest  of  truth  and  beauty,  London 
and  Cambridge  and  Oxford  were  as  ignorant  of  the  treas- 
ures of  Greek  literature  as  were  our  forefathers  of  the 
hieroglyphics  of  Egypt.  But  this  ignorance  was  not  des- 
tined to  continue.  Li  the  providence  of  God,  English  stu- 
dents journeyed  to  Florence  to  complete  their  studies,  and 
there  learned  those  languages  in  which  the  Scriptures  were 
originally  given,  and  there  caught  that  spirit  of  reform  of 
which  Savonarola  was  the  most  illustrious  exponent.  The 
new  learning  and  the  new  reform,  destined  to  die  in  Italy, 


Reform  Ideas  Carried  to  Oxford  59 

were  destined  to  live  again  in  England.  The  pioneers  in 
this  work  of  transplanting  this  garden  of  God — these  plants 
of  learning  and  righteousness  and  liberty — from  Italian  to 
English  soil  were  such  worthies  as  Grocyn  and  Linacre  and 
Lilly  and  Colet  and  More  and  Erasmus.  The  first  three 
resided  in  Florence  when  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent  was  at 
the  height  of  his  glory;  and  Colet,  when,  under  Savonarola, 
"Jesus  Christ  was  king  of  Florence."  These  men  became 
the  pupils  and  companions  of  Lorenzo  and  Ficino  and  Poli- 
tian  and  Pico  Mirandola  and  Angelo  and  Savonarola.  They 
gained  personal  knowledge  of  the  horrible  wickedness  of  the 
papacy  and  of  the  profligacy  of  priests  and  monks.  They 
recognized  the  urgency  of  reform  in  the  body  of  the  church, 
in  head  and  members.  They  saw  and  escaped  the  paganiz- 
ing drift  of  the  learned  men  with  whom  they  were  associ- 
ated. They  made  themselves  proficient  in  the  knowledge 
of  Greek.  They  studied  the  New  Testament,  gospels  and 
epistles,  as  well  as  the  writings  of  Plato.  They  went 
straight  to  the  original  sources  and  learned  with  joy  and 
awe  what  Christianity  really  is.  Christ  himself  lived  again 
in  their  apprehension  and  experience;  and  thus  prepared 
of  God,  they  returned  to  Oxford,  there  to  revive  the  study 
of  the  Greek  language  and  literature;  there  to  crowd  their 
lecture-rooms  with  eager  undergraduates,  filling  their  souls 
with  the  very  words  of  Christ  and  his  apostles;  there  to 
give  place  and  supremacy  to  the  very  religion  of  the  New 
Testament,  as  opposed  to  the  folly  and  irreligion  of  popes 
and  priests  and  monks  and  schoolmen;  and  there  to  kindle 
an  evangelical  flame  whose  radiance  should  stream  to  the 
remotest  and  darkest  corners  of  the  British  Isles, 

Of  the  four  worthies  whom  I  have  named,  we  are  most 
familiar  with  the  career  of  Colet.  Let  him  stand  as  the 
exponent  of    the    rest.      At    Florence,    in    the    Platonic 


6o  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

Academy,  he  learned  to  read  the  language  of  the  New 
Testament;  in  the  church  of  San  Marco  he  hung  spell- 
bound on  the  lips  of  Savonarola,  and  learned  of  the  infamy 
of  the  Borgias,  of  the  utter  corruption  of  the  church,  of  the 
impending  doom  of  the  world,  of  the  call  from  heaven  for 
an  instant  and  radical  transformation  of  society  With 
these  fires  burning  on  his  heart's  altar,  he  returned  to 
Oxford.  Before  the  youth  of  that  university  he  laid  the 
marvelous  treasures  of  the  Greek  language.  That  language 
furnished  him  a  key  with  which  to  unlock  the  word  of  God, 
and  Christ  became  the  center,  the  strength,  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  his  life.  "I  admire  the  writings  of  the  Apostles,  but 
I  forget  them  almost  when  I  contemplate  the  wonderful 
majesty  of  Jesus  Christ."  His  regenerate  soul,  in  vital 
union  with  the  living  Head,  discarded  totally  and  forever 
the  ecclesiastical  and  scholastic  systems  in  which  he  had 
been  reared,  rejected  utterly  the  traditional  dogmas  and 
corruptions  of  the  schoolmen  which  opposed  the  historical 
and  grammatical  sense  of  the  biblical  text.  Henceforth 
Christ  and  the  New  Testament  ruled  his  thought  and 
speech.  The  students  crowded  his  lecture-room  to  hear  the 
exposition  of  Paul's  epistles.  "He  seemed  like  one  inspired, 
raised  in  voice,  eye,  his  whole  countenance,  and  mien,  out 
of  himself."  Burdened  souls  sought  his  counsel.  He  led 
them  to  Christ,  They  followed  him  from  his  lecture-room 
to  his  chambers.  He  resolved  their  doubts ;  threw  them  out 
of  conceit  with  scholastic  follies;  taught  them  the  New 
Testament  doctrine  and  piety;  molded  their  character 
after  the  divine  likeness.  He  saw  the  state  of  Christianity 
in  England,  and  with  Oxford  students  he  did  what  he  could 
to  stem  the  tide.  "With  grief  and  tears,"  he  pointed  out 
the  corruption  of  popes  and  cardinals — "the  popes  wickedly 
distilling  poison,  to  the  destruction  of  the  church."     He 


Colefs  Call  for  Reformation  6i 

burst  out,  "O,  Jesus  Christ,  wash  for  us  not  our  feet  only, 
but  also  our  hands  and  our  hcadl  Otherwise  our  dis- 
ordered church  cannot  be  far  from  death."  From  Oxford 
he  removed  to  London,  becoming  the  dean  of  St.  Paul's. 
He  did  not  miss  his  opportunity;  preaching  before  the  con- 
vocation of  the  clergy  in  15 12,  he  exposed  in  plainest  words 
the  ecclesiastical  abuses  and  scandals  of  the  age,  the  igno- 
rance and  wickedness  of  the  priesthood,  and  the  urgent 
need  of  a  thoroughgoing  reform. 

We  see  strange  and  heretical  ideas  appear  in  our  days  and  no 
wonder.  But  you  must  know  that  no  heresy  is  so  fatal  to  us  and  to 
the  people  at  large  as  the  vicious  and  depraved  lives  of  the  clergy. 
That  is  the  worst  heresy  of  all.  All  the  corruptness,  all  the  decay  of 
the  church,  all  the  offenses  of  the  world,  come  of  the  covetousness  of 
priests.  Would  that  for  once  you  would  remember  your  name  and 
profession,  and  take  thought  for  the  reformation  of  the  church. 
Never  was  it  more  necessary,  and  never  did  the  state  of  the  church 
need  more  vigorous  endeavors.  A  reformation  is  needed,  and  that 
reformation  must  begin  with  the  bishops  and  be  extended  to  the  priests. 
The  clergy  once  reformed,  we  can  proceed  to  the  reformation  of  the 
people.  Let  the  clergy  cease  their  secular  occupations  to  the  dis- 
honor of  the  priesthood.  Let  their  luxury  and  worldliness  come  to 
an  end.  Let  them  be  ministers  indeed,  busy  with  preaching,  forsaking 
the  court  and  laboring  in  their  own  dioceses — not  merchants,  hunters, 
usurers,  wearing  arms,  being  common  players,  haunting  taverns,  and 
associating  questionably  with  women.  Let  the  monks  likewise  be 
purged  of  similar  faults.  Moreover,  let  not  the  bishops  themselves 
overlook  their  own  errors.  Abandon  nepotism  and  simony  and  non- 
residence.  Ordain  and  promote  only  worthy  ministers.  Reform  the 
episcopal  courts,  and  provincial  councils.  Beginning  at  the  top  let  the 
reformation  work  its  way  down  through  the  grades  of  the  clergy,  and 
at  last  to  the  common  people. 

Of  course,  utterances  like  these  provoked  hostility,  and 
of  course,  complaints  were  lodged  with  the  London  bishop 
and  with  the  king.  But  the  bishop  would  not  interfere,  and 
young  King  Henry  said,   "Let  every  man  have  his  own 


62  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

doctor,  and  let  every  man  favor  his  own;  but  this  man  is 
the  doctor  for  me." 

Colet's  next  step  was  to  found  the  celebrated  school  of 
St.  Paul's,  hard  by  the  cathedral,  in  which  one  hundred  and 
fifty-three  selected  youth  were  taught  the  Greek  and  Latin 
classics,  the  bad  Latin  of  the  monks  and  the  worthless 
jargon  of  the  schoolmen  being  dropped,  and  in  the  govern- 
ment of  which  the  old  flogging  and  force-methods  gave 
place  to  gentleness  and  love.    The  historian.  Green,  says : 

Not  only  did  the  study  of  Greek  creep  gradually  into  the  schools 
which  existed,  but  the  example  of  Colet  was  followed  by  a  crowd  of 
imitators.  More  grammar  schools  were  founded  in  the  latter  years 
of  Henry  than  in  the  three  centuries  before.  The  system  of  middle- 
class  education,  which  by  the  close  of  the  century  had  changed  the 
very  face  of  England,  was  the  direct  result  of  Colet's  foundation  of 
St.  Paul's. 

Of  course  the  bigoted  clergy  were  quick  to  take  the 
alarm,  but  in  spite  of  their  cries  of  heresy  and  all  their  evil 
machinations,  Colet  still  preached  on  and  won  adherents. 
His  school  still  flourished  and  his  leaven  of  the  Gospel  still 
spread.  At  last,  however,  by  tireless  persecution  he  was 
driven  into  retirement,  and  thence  he  entered  into  the 
blessedness  of  the  pious  dead,  resting  from  his  earthly  labors 
in  the  year  15 19 — two  years  after  Luther  had  begun  his 
conflict  with  the  powers  of  Rome. 

We  must  remember  that  Colet  was  an  intelligent  and 
earnest  Christian  man;  that  he  had  a  deep  and  fervent 
experience  of  the  saving  love  and  grace  of  Jesus  Christ.  We 
must  remember,  too,  that  he  was  a  man  of  rich  and  varied 
learning.  He  knew  the  ancient  philosophers,  the  Church 
Fathers,  the  great  masters  in  law  and  in  theology.  We  must 
remember,  likewise,  that  his  piety  and  learning  turned  him 
away  from  the  lax  morals  and  shameful  practices  of  priests 


Colefs  Rejorming  Influence  63 

and  monks,  from  the  superstitions  which  held  the  ignorant 
in  thrall,  from  the  unscriptural  doctrines  which  the  church 
had  foisted  upon  the  world.  We  must  remember  that  liis 
example  and  teaching  determined  and  molded  the  characters 
of  some  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  day  in  which  he  lived; 
that  Sir  Thomas  More  owed  his  conversion  to  him;  that 
Lilly  and  Linacre  and  Grocyn  owed  their  moral  uplifting 
and  influence  to  him;  that  Erasmus  was  brought  to  a  saving 
knowledge  of  Christ  by  him  and  weaned  away  from 
scholasticism  to  practical  wisdom  through  his  entreaty ;  and 
that  the  greatest  of  the  Humanists  through  all  his  life  looked 
upon  Colet  as  "my  best  of  teachers,"  "my  own  and  only 
teacher."  We  must  remember  that  Colet  was  the  greatest 
preacher  England  had  thus  far  produced  (Wiclif  being  the 
one  sole  exception) — the  first  great  preacher  in  St.  Paul's, the 
first  in  that  great  line  of  preachers  whose  eloquence  has  been 
heard  on  that  spot  where  the  grand  cathedral  stands.  We 
must  remember  that  he  was  the  greatest  schoolmaster  Eng- 
land had  thus  far  produced ;  that  he  was  the  founder  of  one 
of  the  greatest  of  English  schools,  and  that  his  educational 
ideas  were  far  in  advance  of  his  own  age,  and  quite  abreast 
the  ideas  which  now  prevail. 

CONCLUSION 

I  ask  you  to  bear  with  me  now  while  in  a  few  sentences 
I  summarize  the  results  at  which  we  have  thus  far  arrived. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  just  before 
and  after  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VHI, 
before  Luther  had  raised  his  voice,  there  was  a  widespread 
feeling  in  England  that  a  reformation  of  some  sort  was 
urgently  needed.  Regarding  the  sort  of  reformation  needed 
there  was  a  difference  of  opinion.  Men,  whose  views  the 
revival  of  learning  had  shaped,  wished  one  sort.     Men, 


64  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

whose  views  Wiclif  had  shaped,  wished  another  sort.  The 
Humanists  thought  that  ignorance  and  superstition  and 
immorahty  and  irreligion  ought  to  be  done  away,  but  thr.t 
no  organic  change  and  no  disturbing  of  estabHshed  institu- 
tions was  required.  The  Lollards  thought  that  the  reforma- 
tion ought  to  extend,  as  Canon  Perry  puts  it,  to  "the 
destruction  of  the  whole  existing  system  of  religious 
observance,  and  the  rigid  exclusion  and  condemnation  of 
everything  v/hich  could  not  be  justified  from  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures." To  speak  broadly,  the  Humanists  were  educational 
or  literary  reformers;  the  Lollards  were  doctrinal  or  scrip- 
tural reformers. 

To  the  Humanist  class  belonged  such  men  as  the  young 
king,  Henry  himself,  who  was  highly  educated  and  a  patron 
of  learning;  Cardinal  Wolsey,  who  was  interested  in  the 
founding  of  colleges  and  cathedrals  for  the  diffusion  of 
intelligence  and  the  promotion  of  morals ;  Archbishop  War- 
ham,  who  gave  the  new  learning  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
his  hearty  approval;  Bishop  Fox,  the  founder  of  Corpus 
Christi  at  Oxford,  "erected  especially  for  the  cultivation  of 
the  three  learned  languages;"  Bishop  Fisher,  who  learned 
Greek  in  his  old  age  and  introduced  its  study  at  Cambridge 
University ;  William  Grocyn,  who  brought  Greek  from  Italy 
to  England  and  gave  lessons  to  Erasmus;  Thomas  Linacre, 
who  likewise  studied  at  Florence  and  taught  at  Oxford 
and  founded  the  College  of  Physicians  in  London ;  Thomas 
More,  who  cultivated  learning  all  his  days,  and  wrote  that 
wonderful  book  Utopia;  John  Colet,  of  whom  I  have  spoken 
at  length  in  this  paper;  and  Erasmus,  greatest  of  them  all, 
the  prince  of  Humanists,  of  whom  I  shall  have  something 
to  say  in  the  paper  which  follows  this.  These  were  the 
intellectual  reformers. 

Of  the  other  sort — the  biblical  reformers — few  names 


The  Biblical  Reformers,  Obscure  Men  65 

have  come  down  to  us.  They  were  obscure  men,  most  of 
all  anxious  to  dwell  in  obscurity,  for  discovery  brought 
them  to  the  dungeon  and  the  stake  and  they  are  seen  by  us 
today,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  light  of  their  burnings. 
Froude  says  of  these  men  who  cherished  the  memory  of 
Wiclif  and  imbibed  his  sentiments,  that  they 
formed  a  party  in  the  country  who  had  a  part  to  play  in  the  historical 
drama,  composed  at  that  time  merely  of  poor  men;  poor  cobblers, 
weavers,  trade  apprentices,  and  humble  artisans,  men  of  low  birth  and 
low  estate,  who  might  be  seen  at  night  stealing  along  the  lanes  and 
alleys  of  London,  carrying  with  them  some  precious  load  of  books 
which  it  was  death  to  have,  and  giving  their  lives  gladly,  if  it  must  be 
so,  for  the  brief  tenure  of  so  dear  a  treasure. 

These  men  formed  that  class,  numerous,  though  hidden 
and  proscribed,  whose  "desires  and  aspirations  were  for  a 
scriptural  reformation."  Both  classes — the  Humanists  and 
the  Lollards,  each  in  its  own  way — were  getting  the  English 
nation  ready  for  the  impending  revolution. 


II 

SOME  PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  ENGLISH 
REFORMATION— Contmued 


II 

SOME  PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  ENGLISH 
REFORMATION— Cow/mw^o? 

In  naming  some  preparations  for  the  English  Reforma- 
tion, I  mention,  in  the  third  place : 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  GREEK  TESTAMENT  OF  ERASMUS 

While  Lollardism  was  an  influence  preparing  the 
English  peasantry  for  the  approaching  reformation. 
Humanism  was  substituting  new  ideas,  borrowed  from 
classic  antiquity,  for  prevailing  scholastic  ideas  and  modes 
of  thinking,  and  so  snapping  the  cords  which  fettered  the 
minds  of  the  educated.  Humanism  was  less  paganized  and 
more  Christianized  in  England  than  in  Italy.  Grocyn, 
Linacre,  Lilly,  and  Colet  were  devout  biblical  Christians  as 
well  as  profound  classical  scholars,  and  by  their  teaching 
and  example  promoted  both  an  educational  and  a  religious 
reform.  It  was  no  small  matter  to  turn  the  study  of  the 
university  boys  totally  away  from  the  useless  subtleties  of 
the  scholastic  philosophy,  and  the  allegorical  and  mystical 
theology  of  the  Middle  Ages;  no  small  matter  so  to  stimu- 
late and  arouse  their  minds  by  the  quickening  influences  of 
the  new  learning  and  to  bring  about  the  result  that,  as  an 
eye-witness  testified,  "The  students  rush  to  Greek  letters; 
they  endure  watching,  fasting,  toil,  and  hunger  in  the  pur- 
suit of  them."  One  enthusiast,  whose  name  I  shall  men- 
tion presently,  exclaimed,  'T  have  given  up  my  whole  soul 
to  Greek  learning,  and  as  soon  as  I  get  any  money  I  shall 
buy  Greek  books,  and  then  I  shall  buy  some  clothes." 

But  how  is  our  admiration  for  these  university  pro- 

69 


70  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

fessors  increased  when  we  reflect  that  they  were  not  mak- 
ing the  study  of  the  classics  an  end  in  itself;  that  with  the 
classics  as  a  means  they  were  striving  to  indoctrinate  their 
pupils  in  the  principles  and  spirit  of  a  rational  and  practical 
religion  drawn  directly  from  the  Sacred  Word,  striving  with 
the  help  of  the  language  of  Plato  to  lead  their  pupils  to  a 
knowledge  of  Christ ! 

One  pupil  whom  these  teachers  guided  and  molded  in 
both  these  respects — in  learning  and  in  piety — deserves  our 
special  notice.  Erasmus,  who  afterward  became  the  prince 
of  Humanists  and  the  most  cultivated  and  learned  man  in 
all  the  world,  far  surpassing  his  instructors,  acquired  from 
Grocyn  his  classical  knowledge  and  from  Colet  his  rational 
piety. 

Erasmus  was  the  illegitimate  son  of  a  Dutch  priest, 
born  in  Rotterdam,  about  1465.  For  five  years,  against  his 
will,  he  was  an  Augustinian  monk.  Afterward  he  became 
a  priest,  though  he  never  had  a  parish.  For  about  five 
years  he  was  secretary  to  the  bishop  of  Cambray.  From 
youth  he  had  a  quenchless  thirst  for  knowledge.  He 
studied  at  Paris  and  Orleans.  Green  says,  "It  was  in  de- 
spair of  reaching  Italy  [Florence]  that  the  young  scholar 
made  his  way  to  Oxford,  as  the  one  place  on  this  side  the 
Alps  where  he  would  be  enabled,  through  the  teaching  of 
Grocyn,  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  Greek."  But  he  had  no 
sooner  arrived  there  than  all  feeling  of  regret  vanished 
away. 

I  have  found  in  Oxford  [he  writes]  so  much  polish  and  learning 
that  now  I  hardly  care  about  going  to  Italy  at  all,  save  for  the  sake  of 
having  been  there.  When  I  listen  to  my  friend  Colet,  it  seems  like 
listening  to  Plato  himself.  Who  does  not  wonder  at  the  wide  range 
of  Grocyn's  knowledge?  What  can  be  more  searching,  deep,  and 
refined  than  the  judgment  of   Linacre?     When  did  nature  mould  a 


Erasmus  and  His  Career  71 

temper  more  gentle,  endearing  and  happy  than  the  temper  of  Thomas 
More? 

Colet  reminded  the  young  enthusiast  of  Plato,  but  he 
also  reminded  him  of  Christ,  and  "taught  him  that  theology 
must  return  from  scholasticism  to  the  Scriptures,  and  from 
dry  dogmas  to  practical  wisdom."  Leaving  England,  he 
spent  three  years  in  Italy,  taking  his  degree  of  doctor  of 
divinity  at  Turin,  and  residing  at  Venice,  Padua,  Bologna, 
and  Rome.  Returning  to  England  he  became  professor  of 
divinity  and  reader  of  Greek  at  Cambridge.  Resigning  his 
professorship,  he  returned  to  the  Continent,  residing  at 
Basle,  Brussels,  Antwerp,  Louvain,  and  dying,  in  his 
seventieth  year,  at  Basle,  in  1535.  He  .was  a  little  man,  with 
a  wrinkled  forehead  and  a  bad  temper.  He  abhorred  English 
beer,  liked  only  Burgundy  wine,  loathed  the  very  smell  of 
fish,  never  wore  spectacles,  was  fond  of  children,  and 
dreaded  death.  He  never  learned  English,  German,  or 
Italian,  had  just  a  little  French,  and  only  a  smattering  of 
his  native  Dutch.  In  Latin — the  Latin  of  Cicero — he 
thought  and  spoke  and  wrote.  He  was  the  most  famous 
and  honored  man  in  all  Europe.  Universities,  kings, 
bishops,  cardinals,  and  popes  vied  with  each  other  to  do  him 
homage.  In  religion,  while,  as  I  believe,  a  sincere  Christian, 
he  had  no  liking  for  the  martyr's  crown.  He  started  a 
reform  which  Luther  continued.  His  enemies  said,  and 
truly,  "Erasmus  laid  the  egg,  and  Luther  hatched  it."  In 
his  Praise  of  Folly  he  could  remorselessly  expose  the  vices 
and  follies  of  monks,  priests,  and  popes,  but  with  Luther's 
savage  attacks  and  revolutionary  schemes  he  had  no  sym- 
pathy. As  the  movement  advanced,  his  position  became 
most  embarrassing.  "It  is  dangerous  to  speak,"  said  he, 
"and  it  is  dangerous  to  be  silent."  Unwilling  to  displease 
any,  he  offended  all.    Long  before  he  died  he  had  incurred 


72  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

the  enmity  of  both  Lutherans  and  Romanists.  "Secundus 
Curio  describes  two  heavens,  the  papal  and  the  Christian. 
He  found  Erasmus  in  neither,  but  discovered  him  revolving 
between  both  in  never-ending  orbits." 

Erasmus  was  pre-eminently  a  man  of  letters,  and  not  a 
reformer;  nevertheless,  in  spite  of  himself,  by  his  literary 
labors,  he  did  more  than  any  living  man  to  prepare  the  way 
for  the  Protestant  Revolution.  When  he  published  the 
ancient  Latin  classics,  Cicero,  Terence,  Seneca,  Livy,  Pliny, 
and  the  Greek  classics  with  Latin  translations,  Euripides, 
Xenophon,  Demosthenes,  Plutarch,  Lucian;  when  he  sent 
forth  in  book  form  the  writings  of  the  principal  Fathers, 
Irenaeus,  Origen,  Cyprian,  Hilarius,  Epiphanius,  Basil, 
Chrysostom,  Ambrose,  Augustine;  when  he  wrote  and 
printed  his  own  original  works,  The  Adages,  The  Praise  of 
Folly,  The  Colloquies,  The  Confessional,  The  Institution  of 
Christian  Marriage,  The  Manual  of  a  Christian  Soldier, 
The  Catechism  on  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  Decalogue  and 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  The  Method  of  True  Theology;  above 
all,  when  he  sent  forth  the  first  printed  edition  of  the  Greek 
New  Testament,  with  a  Latin  translation  differing  at  many 
points  from  Jerome,  in  all  this  work  of  a  scholar  he  was 
unconsciously  doing  more  to  bring  about  a  reformation  of 
religion  than  any  man  that  breathed. 

The  greatest  work  of  Savonarola,  the  Italian,  was  the 
conversion  of  Colet,  the  Englishman;  the  greatest  work  of 
Colet  was  the  conversion  of  Erasmus,  the  Dutchman;  and 
the  greatest  work  of  Erasmus  was  the  editing  and  printing 
of  the  Greek  New  Testament,  through  the  reading  of  which 
Bilney  was  converted,  who  in  turn  converted  Latimer,  whose 
gospel  preaching  converted  thousands  more;  and  through 
the  reading  of  which  Tyndale  was  converted,  who  in  turn 
translated  into  English  the  Word  of  Life,  the  reading  of 


Erasmus^  Greek  New  Testament 


73 


which  brought  still  other  thousands  to  a  saving  knowledge 
of  the  truth. 

Erasmus  got  it  into  his  head  that  to  the  learned  world 
ought  to  be  given  the  Greek  New  Testament  in  book  form. 
I  think  the  spirit  of  God  lodged  that  thought  in  his  mind. 
Certainly  it  was  no  vain  ambition  of  the  mere  scholar. 
These  are  his  words :  "If  the  ship  of  the  church  is  to  be 
saved  from  being  swallowed  up  by  the  tempest,  there  is 
only  one  anchor  that  can  save  it.  It  is  the  heavenly  word, 
which,  issuing  from  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  lives,  speaks, 
and  works  still  in  the  Gospel."  And  again,  "It  is  not  from 
human  reservoirs,  fetid  with  stagnant  waters,  that  we 
should  draw  the  doctrine  of  salvation;  but  from  the  pure 
and  abundant  streams  that  flow  from  the  heart  of  God." 
And  yet  again,  "A  spiritual  temple  must  be  raised  in  deso- 
lated Christendom.  The  mighty  of  this  world  will  con- 
tribute toward  it  in  their  marble,  their  ivory,  and  their  gold ; 
I,  who  am  poor  and  humble,  offer  the  foundation  stone." 

Erasmus  was  the  one  man  on  earth  fitted  to  make  this 
offering.  His  purpose  was  "to  restore  the  pure  text  of  the 
Word  of  God."  He  alone  had  the  requisite  material  and 
learning — the  material  in  numerous  Greek  MSS  of  the 
New  Testament  and  the  writings  of  the  Fathers,  and  the 
learning,  in  the  ripest  scholarship  of  the  age.  With  material 
and  learning  at  hand  it  was  no  easy  task,  however,  for  he 
himself  declares,  "If  I  told  what  sweat  it  cost  me,  no  one 
would  believe  me."  In  due  time,  1516,  there  appeared  at 
Basle  the  first  edition  of  the  Greek  Testament.  Besides  the 
text  there  was  a  new  Latin  translation  in  which  the  errors 
and  obscurities  and  Hebraisms  and  barbarisms  of  Jerome's 
Vulgate  were  corrected.  Notes  were  appended  which  justi- 
fied these  departures  from  the  received  version.  In  process 
of  time   four  other  editions   found  their  way  into  print. 


74  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

Speedily  the  new  Greek-Latin  book  made  itself  felt  in 
London,  Oxford,  and  Cambridge.  It  produced  a  profound 
sensation.  The  learned  read  it  with  the  utmost  eagerness. 
Forthwith  it  began  its  enlightening  and  regenerating  work. 

Then  the  opposition  began.  The  priests  declared :  *Tf 
this  book  be  tolerated  it  will  be  the  death  of  the  papacy." 
They  fully  understood  that  a  Greek  Testament  today  meant 
an  English  Testament  tomorrow;  for  Erasmus  himself  had 
said: 

Perhaps  it  may  be  necessary  to  conceal  the  secrets  of  kings,  but 
we  must  publish  the  mysteries  of  Christ.  The  Holy  Scriptures,  trans- 
lated into  all  languages,  should  be  read  not  only  by  the  Scotch  and 
Irish,  but  even  by  Turks  and  Saracens.  The  husbandman  should  sing 
them  as  he  holds  the  handle  of  his  plow,  the  weaver  repeat  them  as 
he  plies  his  shuttle,  and  the  wearied  traveler,  halting  on  his  journey, 
refresh  him  under  some  shady  tree  by  these  godly  narratives. 

The  monks  and  bishops  scented  the  danger  from  afar, 
and  they  raised  a  howl :  This  book  must  go  or  our  race  is 
run.  Let  the  book  live  and  we  must  die!  Erasmus  was 
both  astonished  and  frightened.  "Wretch  that  I  am !  Who 
could  have  foreseen  this  horrible  tempest?  I  call  God  to 
witness,  I  thought  I  was  doing  a  work  acceptable  to  the 
Lord  and  necessary  to  the  cause  of  Christ." 

But  the  book  was  now  beyond  the  reach  of  the  timid 
scholar  and  the  angry  priest,  and  everywhere  it  was  finding 
the  consciences  and  hearts  of  men.  Note  two  examples  of 
its  transforming  power — one  from  each  of  the  great  uni- 
versities. At  Cambridge  was  a  young  doctor,  Thomas 
Bilney  by  name,  who  for  a  long  time  had  sought  peace  of 
soul  by  the  papal  methods.  His  struggles,  groanings,  pri- 
vations, vigils,  prayers,  and  penances  I  cannot  here  describe. 
He  heard  of  the  new  book,  and  with  inward  trembling  and 
awful  dread,  doubting  whether  prompted  by  God  or  the 


The  Evangelizing  Power  of  the  Book  75 

devil,  he  secretly  purchased  the  proscribed  volume.  With 
the  door  of  his  room  securely  bolted,  he  began  the  reading. 
The  very  first  sentence  made  him  free  in  Christ.  "This  is  a 
faithful  saying  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Jesus 
Christ  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of  whom  I  am 
chief."  "What,  St.  Paul  the  chief  of  sinners,  and  yet  St. 
Paul  is  sure  of  being  saved !  O  assertion  of  St.  Paul,  how 
sweet  art  thou  to  my  soul !  I  also  am,  like  Paul,  and  more 
than  Paul,  the  greatest  of  sinners;  but  Christ  saves  sinners. 
At  last  I  have  heard  of  Jesus.  Jesus  Christ,  yes,  Jesus  Christ 
saves.  I  see  it  all — my  vigils,  my  fasts,  my  pilgrimages,  my 
purchase  of  masses  and  indulgences  were  destroying,  in- 
stead of  saving  me.  All  these  efforts  were,  as  St.  Augustine 
says,  a  hasty  running  out  of  the  right  way." 

Bilney  became,  as  we  know,  a  flaming  evangelist,  and 
finished  his  course  at  the  martyr's  stake  (Wolsey  burned 
him  in  1 53 1 ) .  Let  me  exhibit  just  one  trophy  of  his  evange- 
lizing zeal  and  skill.  Hugh  Latimer  was  at  Cambridge,  the 
university  cross-bearer.  He  had  won  this  place  by  his  nar- 
row, bigoted,  prejudiced,  impetuous,  indefatigable  zeal  and 
activity  against  the  new  book  and  the  readers  of  it.  He  did 
his  utmost,  in  private  and  in  public,  to  root  it  and  them  out 
of  the  university.  Bilney  was  moved  to  attempt  the  conver- 
sion of  this  papal  fanatic.  He  adopted  a  strange  expedient, 
but  it  resulted  in  "one  of  the  most  astonishing  conver- 
sions recorded  in  history."  We  will  let  D'Aubigne,  though 
in  shortened  form,  tell  the  story :  Bilney  went  to  the  col- 
lege where  Latimer  resided.  He  knew  that  Latimer  would 
listen  to  no  direct  appeal,  so  falling  on  his  knees,  he  cried, 
"For  the  love  of  God,  be  pleased  to  hear  my  confession," 
The  heretic  prayed  to  make  confession  to  the  Catholic.  The 
ardent  Latimer  eagerly  yielded  to  Bilney's  request,  and  the 
latter,  on  his  knees  before  the  cross-bearer,  related  to  him 


76  Preparations  for  the  English  Rejormation 

the  anguish  he  had  once  felt  in  his  soul,  the  efforts  he  had 
made  to  remove  it,  their  unprofitableness  so  long  as  he  de- 
termined to  follow  the  precepts  of  the  church;  and  lastly 
the  peace  he  had  felt  when  he  believed  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world. 
Latimer  listened  without  mistrust.  The  truth  began  to. 
enter;  his  heart  was  opened;  new  thoughts  came  crowding 
in;  the  penitent  continued.  The  good  Spirit  of  God  was 
doing  a  work  in  the  soul  of  the  confessor.  At  length  grace 
prevailed.  The  penitent  rose  up,  but  Latimer  remained 
seated,  absorbed  in  thought.  God  scattered  the  darkness 
that  still  obscured  his  mind.  Bilney  drew  near  him  with 
love.  Latimer  was  changed.  Lie  saw  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
only  savior;  he  saw  and  adored.  With  horror  he  thought 
of  the  obstinate  war  he  had  waged  against  God;  he  wept 
bitterly.  Bilney  consoled  him.  "Brother,  though  your  sins 
be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  white  as  snow."  And  Latimer, 
the  new  man,  became  the  Hugh  Latimer  of  history.  Thus 
at  Cambridge  was  the  Greek  Testament  of  Erasmus  ful- 
filling its  mission. 

At  Oxford  it  was  eagerly  read,  as  bitterly  denounced, 
as  fruitful  in  blessed  results.  At  Oxford  was  a  young  stu- 
dent taking  his  degrees  under  those  celebrated  teachers, 
Grocyn  and  Linacre.  I  have  not  the  time  to  tell  of  the  con- 
version of  William  Tyndale.  He  read  the  book,  experi- 
enced its  saving  grace,  and  uttered  the  cry,  "Eureka,  I  have 
found  it!"  Thus  did  God  make  Erasmus  the  precursor  of 
the  Reformation,  and  his  Greek  Testament  the  foundation 
stone  of  the  new  spiritual  temple.^ 

^  Professor  S.  M.  Jackson  is  the  editor  of  a  series  on  the  "Heroes  of 
the  Reformation."  Only  by  a  far  stretch  of  the  imagination  could  he 
include  Erasmus  in  the  series.  In  a  list  of  the  biggest  cowards  of  the  six- 
teenth   century    Erasmus    would    certainly    stand    at    the    head.      He    was 


Tyndale's  English  New  Testament  77 

I  come  now  to  a  fourth  preparation  for  the  English 
Reformation : 

THE   INFLUENCE   OF   TYNDALE^S   ENGLISH    NEW   TESTAMENT 

Having  run  the  career  of  an  able  scholar  and  an  earnest 
evangelist  at  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  Tyndale  took 
up  his  abode  at  Sodbury  (eight  or  ten  miles  from  London), 
in  the  hall  of  his  patron,  Sir  John  Walsh.  It  was  here  that 
the  idea  of  an  English  version  of  the  Scriptures  took  defi- 
nite and  final  shape.  "It  was  in  the  language  of  Israel  that 
the  Psalms  were  sung  in  the  temple  of  Jehovah;  and  shall 
not  the  Gospel  speak  the  language  of  England  among  us? 
Ought  the  church  to  have  less  light  at  noonday  than  at 
the  dawn?  Christians  must  read  the  New  Testament  in  their 
mother-tongue." 

This  sentiment  irritated  the  priests  in  the  neighborhood 
and  inflamed  their  rage,  and  they  set  themselves  to  work 
his  ruin.  Driven  from  Sodbury,  he  made  his  way  to  London, 
where  for  a  time,  in  the  home  of  an  alderman,  Monmouth, 
by  day  and  by  night,  he  worked  at  his  book.     His  enemies 

doubtless  the  most  brilliant  and  polished  scholar  of  his  age,  but  at  his 
best  he  had  only  a  sneaking  sympathy  with  the  Reformers,  and  at  his 
worst  he  was  an  arrant  poltroon.  It  is  a  talented,  scholarly,  learned,  ver- 
satile, sensitive,  conceited,  grumbling,  cowardly,  unlovable  man  that  Pro- 
fessor Emerton  has  tried  to  introduce  to  his  readers.  He  has  set  himself  no 
easy  task,  for  his  "hero"  was  a  bundle  of  contradictions,  inconsistencies, 
pettinesses,  trivialities,  sinuosities.  How  can  one  be  certain  of  his  ground 
when  he  is  dealing  with  such  a  singular  compound  of  wisdom  and  deceit — 
a  craven,  evasive  character,  who,  when  self  is  concerned,  seems  incapable 
of  telling  the  truth  ?  Perhaps  it  is  a  high  enough  meed  of  praise  to  say 
that  Professor  Emerton  has  given  us  the  most  "complete  and  satisfactory 
life  of  Erasmus"  that  has  yet  been  written.  His  critical  spirit  and  method 
guard  him  against  taking  the  word  of  Erasmus  at  its  face  value,  and  con- 
strain him  "in  each  case  to  weigh  the  value  of  the  text  with  the  fullest 
reference  to  all  the  circumstances."  He  has  thus  avoided  numerous  errors 
into  which  other  biographers  have  fallen. — Extract  from  a  review  by  Dean 
Hulbert  in  The  American  Journal  of  Theology,  Vol.  V     (1901),  p.  208. 


78  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

multiplying,  he  left  London  for  Germany.  On  the  Conti- 
nent he  hid  himself.  Just  where  he  did  his  work  of  trans- 
lating is  still  a  matter  of  conjecture.  He  saw  to  it  that  the 
enemies  of  truth  should  not  destroy  his  handiwork.  At  last 
the  work  was  ready  for  the  press,  and  the  printing  of  it 
was  begun  at  Cologne;  but  only  begun,  when,  by  an  acci- 
dent, his  project  was  discovered  and  all  his  hopes  were 
ruined.  Tyndale  fled  to  Worms  and  there  accomplished 
what  at  Cologne  had  failed.  In  the  meantime  the  English 
rulers  had  been  apprised  of  the  danger:  "Two  English- 
men are  plotting  wickedly  against  the  peace  of  your  king- 
dom. They  wish  to  send  the  New  Testament  in  English 
to  your  people.  Give  orders  at  every  seaport  to  prevent  the 
introduction  of  this  baneful  merchandise." 

On  the  other  hand,  Tyndale's  MSS  were  now  in  print, 
and  he  was  planning  the  introduction  of  the  books  into 
England.  Five  Hanseatic  merchants  undertook  to  deliver 
them  in  London.  A  London  curate — Thomas  Garret — 
undertook  their  distribution.  A  single  agent  introduced 
upward  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  copies  into  Oxford. 
Cambridge  was  likewise  supplied.  The  common  people 
eagerly  sought  the  book,  and  everywhere  were  tradesmen, 
peasants,  and  farmers  zealously,  though  secretly,  circulating 
Tyndale's  Testament.  The  priests  and  rulers  tried  to  stem 
the  tide,  but  all  in  vain.    Geikie  says : 

Crowds  of  simple  country  people,  guilty  of  no  crime  but  having 
the  New  Testament  in  their  own  language  in  their  possession,  or  of 
having  listened  to  its  being  read  by  others,  were  dragged  to  prison, 
summoned  before  the  bishops'  courts,  and  forced  to  abjure  by  threats 
of  the  dungeon,  the  rack,  or  the  stake Panic-struck,  the  Re- 
formers still  at  large,  butchers,  tailors,  carpenters,  who  felt  themselves 
suspected,  strove  to  escape  in  the  holds  of  vessels,  or  in  disguise,  any- 
where out  of  England.  Even  on  the  Continent  they  were  not  safe, 
for  heretics  were  treated  by  all  governments  as  outlaws,  so  that  they 


Difficulties  and  Dangers  of  Tyndale  79 

had  constantly  to  watch  against  English  emissaries  sent  over  to  arrest 
them. 

But  the  word  of  God  could  not  be  bound,  and  wherever 
it  went  it  set  men  free,  and  it  went  everywhere,  and  the 
Reformation  itself  is  William  Tyndale's  monument! 

A  word  further  concerning  Tyndale  and  John  Frith  who 
was  associated  with  him.  On  fleeing  out  of  England,  in 
1523,  he  seems  to  have  gone  to  Hamburg,  where  he  labored 
on  his  Testament  for  about  a  year.  Thence  he  went  to 
Cologne,  where  he  got  the  first  ten  sheets  of  his  translation 
into  the  press,  when  his  work  was  discovered  and  all  was 
suddenly  brought  to  an  end.  From  Cologne  he  fled  to 
Worms,  where,  in  1525,  he  issued  anonymously  two  editions 
of  his  Testament.  Between  1525  and  1529  he  got  out  two 
other  editions,  and  in  the  latter  year  the  fifth  edition 
appeared.  The  next  year  (1530)  his  translation  of  the 
Pentateuch  saw  the  light.  The  English  authorities  did  their 
very  utmost  to  keep  these  translations  out  of  England.  The 
bishop  of  London  forbade  their  introduction  under  the 
heaviest  penalties.  Sir  Thomas  More  wrote  a  treatise 
against  Tyndale  in  seven  books,  in  which  he  lampooned 
and  vilified  him,  and  pronounced  him  a  blasphemous  beast, 
fit  only  for  burning.  He  knew  enough  to  keep  out  of  Eng- 
land, but  his  friend  and  assistant  (John  Frith),  less  wary, 
ventured  to  cross  the  Channel,  and  was  seized  and  burned 
at  the  stake  in  1533.  Tyndale's  turn  came  three  years  later. 
At  Antwerp  he  was  working  on  his  translation  of  the  Old 
Testament,  when  through  the  treachery  of  a  spy,  an  agent 
of  Henry  VHI,  he  was  arrested  and  taken  to  Viloorde  (a 
small  town  between  Antwerp  and  Brussels),  and  there 
languished  in  prison  for  two  years.  Henry  VIH  insisted 
on  his  execution,  and,  in  1536,  he  was  chained  to  the  stake. 


8o  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

strangled,  and  finally  burnt  to  ashes.  His  last  words  were, 
"Lord,  open  the  king  of  England's  eyes." 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  year  after  his  martyr- 
dom (1536)  the  Bible  was  published  throughout  England 
(1537)  by  command  of  this  very  English  king,  and  ap- 
pointed to  be  placed  in  every  church  for  the  use  of  the 
people,  though  it  is  true  that  Henry  went  back  on  this  later. 
It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  Tyndale  did  his  work  independ- 
ently of  his  predecessor,  Wiclif,  and  of  his  contemporary, 
Luther,  and  that  his  translation  forms  the  basis  of  our  own 
Authorized  Version  of  the  New  Testament.  Says  Dr. 
John  Clifford : 

William  Tyndale  fanned  into  a  flame  the  smouldering  embers  of 
Lollardism,  and  roused  into  newness  of  life,  and  baptized  into  fresh 
energy,  the  work  of  the  illustrious  John  Wiclif,  by  sending  forth  the 
New  Testament  in  a  version,  which,  in  substance,  is  still  in  use  among 
us. 

We  are  ready  now  for  the  fifth  preparation  for  the 
English  Reformation: 

THE    INFLUENCE    OF    LUTHERAN    BOOKS    AND    TRACTS 

^'^  Hitherto  we  have  said  little  of  Martin  Luther,  and  for 

<y         the  simple  reason  that  there  was  little  to  be  said.     The 

vY  ^  'V     English  Reformation,  in  its  primary  causes,  is  in  no  wise 

v/'^       dependent  on  him.     Had  he  never  lived,  the  preparations 

^v^  ^       thus   far  named  would  have   been  made   just  the  same. 

^    >r       ,  Wiclif  started  the  English  reaction  against  the  papacy  more 

^jhv    vV     ^^^^  °"^  hundred  years  before  Luther  was  born,  and  his 

^'  followers  had  leavened  the  English  mind  with  Lollard  senti- 

j-*"  ments  before  a  German  reformation  had  been  thought  of. 

Grocyn  and  Linacre  and  Colet  were  introducing  the  new 

learning  into  Oxford  and  Cambridge  and  London  while 

Luther  was  yet  a  babe  in  arms.     Erasmus  had  his  Greek 

Testament  in  circulation  a  year  before  Luther  nailed  up  his 


•.^ 


Luther  and  His  Reformation  8i 

Theses.  Tyndale  conceived  his  idea  of  an  EngHsh  Testa- 
ment before  Luther  had  made  a  stir  in  the  world,  and  would 
have  executed  it  just  the  same,  had  Luther  never  breathed.. 
And  these  four  influences,  Lollardism,  Humanism,  the 
Greek  Testament,  and  the  English  Testament,  made  a  refor- 
mation in  England  inevitable,  utterly  irrespective  of  any 
revival  movement  on  the  Continent. 

Happily  an  independent  English  reformatory  movement 
was  assisted  and  accelerated  by  influences  from  across  the 
Channel.  In  1483  Martin  Luther  was  born.  Li  1501  he 
entered  the  University  of  Erfurt.  In  1505  he  became 
Master  of  Arts  and  an  Augustinian  monk.  In  1507  he  was 
ordained  to  the  priesthood.  In  15 10  he  visited  Rome,  and, 
while  ascending  Pilate's  staircase,  learned  that  the  "just 
shall  live  by  faith."  At  Rome  he  likewise  saw  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  priesthood  and  the  papacy.  From  1508  he  was 
sub-prior,  preacher,  and  professor  at  Wittenberg.  He 
lectured  on  the  scholastic  philosophy  and  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. In  15 17  the  traffic  in  the  Pope's  indulgences  was 
being  carried  on  with  a  very  high  hand  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Wittenberg.  Luther,  who  was  a  converted  man, 
having  experienced  the  remission  of  sins  as  a  matter  of 
grace,  could  not  endure  that  the  souls  of  men  should  be 
ruined  by  this  bare- faced  and  scandalous  sale  of  indulgences, 
and  he  made  a  protest  and  broke  into  open  resistance.  On 
October  31,  15 17,  he  nailed  his  ninety-five  Latin  Theses  to 
the  door  of  the  castle-church  at  Wittenberg,  and  challenged 
the  world  to  a  public  disputation.  This  is  the  date  of  the 
birth  of  the  German  Reformation.  The  Theses  were  a 
torch  in  a  powder  magazine.  In  short  order  Germany  was 
tipped  the  other  side  up,  i.  e.,  right  side  up.  It  was  only  a 
few  weeks  until  the  translators  and  the  printers  had  copies 
of  the  Theses  scattered  over  all  Europe.    Luther  was  now 


82  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

in  for  it.  In  15 19,  at  Leipzig,  he  had  a  big  disputation 
respecting  the  papacy  with  Dr.  Eck.  The  next  year,  1520, 
in  rapid  succession,  he  pubHshed  his  three  most  effective 
reformatory  works :  the  Address  to  the  German  Nobility, 
The  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church,  and  the  Freedom 
of  a  Christian  Man.  Schaff  says,  "The  first  two  are 
trumpets  of  war,  and  the  hardest  blows  ever  dealt  by  human 
pen  to  the  system  of  popery;  while  the  third  is  peaceful, 
and  shines  like  a  rainbow  above  the  thunder  clouds."  In 
his  Address  to  the  German  Nobility,  he  frees  his  mind 
respecting  priests,  monks,  bishops,  popes,  cardinals,  celibacy, 
masses  for  the  dead,  processions,  saints'  days,  festivals, 
fasts,  etc. — "As  to  the  fraternities,  indulgences,  dispensa- 
tions, masses,  and  all  such  things,  let  them  be  drowned  and 
abolished."  The  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church  was 
written  in  Latin  and  intended  for  the  learned.  In  it  he 
attacks  the  withdrawal  of  the  cup  from  the  laity,  the  doc- 
trine of  transubstantiation,  the  sacrament  of  the  mass,  and 
the  papal  theories  concerning  confirmation,  marriage,  ordi- 
nation, and  extreme  unction.  Regarding  prevailing  errors 
he  says,  "There  is  no  hope  of  a  remedy,  unless  we  do  away 
with  all  the  laws  of  men,  call  back  the  gospel  of  liberty,  and 
judge  and  rule  all  things  according  to  it  alone."  His  closing 
words  are : 

I  hear  a  report  that  fresh  bulls  and  papal  curses  are  being  pre- 
pared against  me,  by  which  I  am  urged  to  recant,  or  else  to  be  declared 
a  heretic.  If  this  is  true,  I  wish  this  little  book  to  be  a  part  of  my 
future  recantation,  that  they  may  not  complain  that  their  tyranny  has 
puffed  itself  up  in  vain.  I  shall  also  shortly  publish,  Christ  being  my 
helper,  such  a  recantation  as  the  See  of  Rome  has  never  yet  seen  or 
heard,  thus  abundantly  testifying  my  obedience  in  the  name  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Amen. 

His  Freedom  of  a  Christian  Man  he  dedicated  to  Pope 


Lutheran  Tracts  in  England  83 

Leo  X,  and,  along  with  the  book,  sent  to  his  Hohness  a 
personal  letter,  in  which  he  says : 

The  Church  of  Rome,  formerly  the  most  holy  of  all  churches,  has 
become  the  most  lawless  den  of  thieves,  the  most  shameless  of  all 
brothels,  the  very  kingdom  of  sin,  death,  and  hell;  so  that  not  even 
Antichrist,  if  he  were  to  come,  could  devise  any  addition  to  its  wicked- 
ness. 

And  there  are  two  or  three  pages  more  in  the  same  vein. 

Of  course  thrusts  like  these  stirred  up  the  Beast,  and  the 
bull  of  excommunication  was  hurled,  and  in  turn  the  bull 
was  burned.  Then  other  books  followed — Against  the 
Papacy  of  Rome,  and  Against  the  Bull  of  Antichrist,  and 
all  Europe  was  beginning  to  feel  the  rockings  of  the  earth- 
quake. As  to  these  books  and  others  like  them,  they  found 
a  ready  circulation.  Everybody  of  low  and  high  degree 
wanted  them;  they  were  practical  and  popular  and  went 
straight  home  to  the  business  and  bosom  of  men.  Soon 
translations  began  to  appear.  English  translations  were  in 
demand,  and  across  the  Channel  into  the  homes  of  scholars 
and  gentlemen  and  farmers  and  tradesmen  went  the  books. 
And  the  English  Lollard  found  himself  in  red-hot  agree- 
ment with  the  Saxon  monk. 

The  English  king  and  legate  and  bishops  tried  to  stamp 
out  the  new  German  heresy,  but  their  united  efforts  were 
worse  than  useless.  Tonstall  voiced  the  sentiment  of  the 
papal  party : 

If  you  allow  the  heresies  to  grow  up  which  this  monk  is  scatter- 
ing with  both  hands,  they  will  choke  the  faith,  and  the  church  will 
perish.  Had  we  not  enough  of  the  Wiclifites?  Here  are  new 
legions  of  the  same  kind.  Today  Luther  calls  for  the  abolition  of  the 
mass,  tomorrow  he  will  ask  for  the  abolition  of  Jesus  Christ.  He 
rejects  everything,  and  puts  nothing  in  its  place.  What,  if  barbari- 
ans plunder  our  frontiers,  we  punish  them ;  and  shall  we  bear  with 
heretics  who  plunder  our  altars?  No,  by  the  mortal  agony  that  Christ 
endured,  I  entreat  you.    What  am  I  saying?     The  whole  church  con- 


84  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

jures  you  to  combat  against  this  devouring  dragon — to  punish  this 
hell-dog,  to  silence  his  sinister  howlings,  and  to  drive  him  shame- 
fully back  into  his  den. 

The  English  authorities  took  the  matter  in  hand.  They 
caused  a  manifesto  against  Luther  and  a  prohibition  of  his 
books  to  be  nailed  by  the  notaries  public  to  the  principal 
door  of  every  cathedral,  conventual,  collegiate,  and  parish 
church  throughout  all  England.  At  St.  Paul's  in  London, 
with  great  pomp  and  parade,  they  made  a  public  burning 
of  Luther's  writings.  The  people  looked  on  unconvinced. 
One  man  said,  "Fire  is  not  a  theological  argument."  An- 
other said,  "The  Papists,  who  accuse  Martin  Luther  of 
slaying  and  murdering  Christians,  are  like  the  pickpocket, 
who  began  to  cry  'Stop  thief !'  as  soon  as  he  saw  himself  in 
danger  of  being  caught."  Another  said,  "The  bishop  of 
Rochester  concludes  that  because  Luther  has  thrown  the 
Pope's  decretals  into  the  fire,  he  would  throw  in  the  Pope 
himself.  We  may  hence  deduce  another  syllogism  quite 
as  sound :  The  popes  have  burnt  the  New  Testament,  there- 
fore, if  they  could,  they  would  burn  Christ  himself." 

But  pronunciamentos  and  prohibitions  and  burnings 
could  not  get  the  pages  of  Luther  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
people,  nor  his  sentiments  out  of  their  hearts.  Those  senti- 
ments were  there  before,  and  his  bold  utterances  only  con- 
firmed and  fastened  them. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  a  preparation  for  the  English  Refor- 
mation less  specific  in  its  character,  and  of  longer  standing. 
I  mention,  sixthly : 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  NATIONAL  JEALOUSY  OF  ROME's 
INTERFERENCE  WITH  THE  POLITICAL  AND  ECCLESIASTI- 
CAL AFFAIRS  OF  ENGLAND 

The  Saxon  blood  is  not  friendly  to  foreign  dictation. 
There  is  not  a  century,  scarcely  a  decade,  in  English  history 


Rome's  Interjerence  in  England  85 

in  which  this  opposition  to  papal  encroachment  does  not 
reveal  itself.  Oftentimes  the  heel  of  the  Pope  is  on  the 
neck  of  the  English  king,  but  unless  the  king  is  a  very  bad 
ruler,  the  English  people  never  take  kindly  to  it.  The  Latin 
races  seem  to  like  to  be  tyrannized  over,  and  be  trod- 
den under  foot,  but  the  Teutonic  races  are  made  of  better 
stuff. 

Down  to  the  era  of  the  Reformation  the  church  in 
England  was  subject  to  the  Roman  pontiff.  The  bishops 
were  the  appointees  and  creatures  of  his  Holiness  the  Pope. 
The  church  property,  about  half  of  the  island,  was  free 
from  taxation,  and  its  revenues  went  to  the  enrichment  of 
the  Italian  overlord.  His  chief  concern  seemed  to  be  the 
financial  one,  and  he  resorted  to  endlessly  varied  expedients 
to  fill  his  coffers.  The  Annates  were  the  first  year's  prod- 
uce of  a  benefice — the  value  of  a  spiritual  living  for  a 
whole  year — which  the  Pope  himself  claimed  by  virtue  of 
his  appointing  power.  The  Peter's  Pence  was  the  yearly 
^payment  by  every  landholder  of  a  silver  penny,  valued  at 
thirty  pence.  The  Reservations  were  the  large  sums  exacted 
by  tfe  ,Pope  for  the  nomination  to  a  rich  benefice.  The 
Expectatioi^s  were  the  large  sums  taken  by  the  Pope  for 
nominating  t6-<a  living  a  successor  to  the  incumbent  not  yet 
dead.  The  incumbent  is  yet  alive,  but  he  will  die  some  time, 
and  when  he  dies  you  shall  have  the  nomination.  The  Com- 
mendations were  the  large  annual  sums  taken  by  the  Pope 
for  placing  the  name  of  an  aspirant  on  the  list,  looking  to  his 
possible  nomination  when  the  incumbent  died.  For  example, 
there  is  a  bishop;  he  has  a  very  fat  living;  he  is  getting  old; 
he  will  drop  off  some  time.  Now,  for  so  much  money,  I 
will  put  your  name  on  a  list  for  a  year,  and  if  the  vacancy 
occurs,  yours  shall  be  one  of  the  names  from  which  the 
next  choice  shall  be  made.      Perhaps  you  will  be  lucky 


86  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

enough  to  get  it.  The  Jus  spoliorum  was  the  property 
which  the  church  dignitary  had  acquired  during  his  tenure 
of  office — all  of  it  claimed  by  the  Pope.  And  so  on  and  on ; 
to  which  must  be  added  the  huge  sums  which  flowed  into 
Rome  through  indulgences,  and  dispensations,  and  ap- 
peals, etc. 

The  English  kings  and  the  more  intelligent  of  the 
English  people  were  not  always  patient  under  this  draining, 
exhausting  process,  and  sometimes  they  spoke  their  minds 
rather  plainly. 

The  Ruler  of  the  World,  seated  in  St.  Peter's  chair,  was 
not  content  to  own  the  church;  he  claimed  to  own  the 
state  as  well,  and  this  claim  he  was  sometimes  able  to 
enforce.  On  the  eve  of  the  Reformation  the  English  people 
could  look  back  over  a  long  national  history,  and  recall 
many  notable  instances  in  which  their  kings  had  been  "made 
to  eat  crow."  For  example,  there  was  Henry  II,  who 
earned  a  restoration  to  the  Pope's  favor  by  doing  penance 
at  the  tomb  of  Thomas  a  Becket.  Rather  a  sorry  sight 
the  king,  there,  bareheaded  and  barefooted,  kneeling  and 
praying — lying  there  naked  on  the  naked  stone  floor, 
receiving  on  his  bare  back  the  floggings  of  the  monks.  For 
example,  again,  there  was  King  John  who  got  into  a  little 
unpleasantness  with  Pope  Innocent  III,  who  in  consequence 
laid  England  under  an  interdict.  Just  what  did  that  mean? 
It  meant  that  "the  outward  rites  of  religious  worship  were 
suspended ;  that  the  altars  were  stripped  of  their  ornaments ; 
that  the  relics  and  images  were  laid  upon  the  ground  and 
carefully  covered  up;  that  the  bells  were  removed  from 
the  steeples  of  the  churches;  that  the  dead  were  buried 
without  religious  rites,  in  unconsecrated  ground;  that  the 
marriages  were  celebrated  in  the  graveyards;  that  the 
butcher-shops   were   all  closed,    meat  being   denied   to   all 


King  John  Humiliated  by  the  Pope  87 

classes;  that  entertainments  and  pleasures  of  all  kinds  were 
forbidden;  that  men  were  prohibited  to  pay  even  a  decent 
regard  to  their  persons,  their  beards  must  go  unshaved, 
their  clothing  unchanged,  their  salutations  with  friends 
ungiven."  The  Pope  has  spoken,  and  England  is  under 
interdict.  Then  when  interdict  failed  to  subdue  the  haughty 
king,  excommunication  and  deposition  follow.  The  throne 
is  vacant,  the  subjects  are  absolved  from  their  allegiance,  a 
French  army  is  ready  to  do  the  pontiff's  bidding.  Then 
follows  King  John's  submission.  A  legate  from  Rome 
arrives.  To  the  legate  John  makes  a  surrender  of  his  king- 
dom— does  it  in  this  wise :  Entering  the  audience  chamber, 
unarmed,  where  the  legate  is  seated  on  a  throne,  throwing 
himself  on  his  knees  at  his  footstool,  offering  the  legate  his 
crown  which  he  contemptuously  kicks  away,  placing  his  own 
joined  hands  in  the  hands  of  the  legate,  he  swears  fealty  to 
the  Pope  in  these  words : 

I,  John,  by  the  grace  of  God,  king  of  England,  and  lord  of  Ire- 
land, for  the  expiation  of  my  sins,  and  out  of  my  own  free  will,  .... 
do  give  unto  the  church  of  Rome,  and  to  Pope  Innocent  III  and  his 
successors,  the  kingdoms  of  England  and  Ireland,  together  with  all 
the  rights  belonging  to  them;  and  will  hold  them  of  the  Pope  as  his 
vassal.  I  will  be  faithful  to  God,  to  the  Church  of  Rome,  to  the  Pope 
my  lord,  and  to  his  successors  lawfully  elected,  and  I  bind  myself  to 
pay  him  a  tribute  of  a  thousand  marks  of  silver  yearly. 

No  great  wonder  that  after  this  humiliating  and  dis- 
graceful transaction.  Magna  Charta  soon  followed. 

Now  we  must  not  conclude  that  superstition  and 
churchly  tyranny  had  so  enthralled  the  English  nation — 
princes  and  subjects — that  no  resistance  was  offered  to 
these  papal  encroachments.  There  is  hardly  a  king  in  the 
English  line  who  did  not  assert  his  kingly  prerogative,  and 
many  of  them  with  partial  or  complete  success.     William 


88  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

the  Conqueror  said:  "Thy  legate  hath  called  upon  me  in 
thy  name  to  take  the  oath  of  fealty  to  thee  and  to  thy  suc- 
cessors. Homage  to  thee  I  have  not  chosen,  nor  do  I  choose 
to  do."  And  again  he  said :  "I  have  a  great  respect  for 
the  Pope's  legate  in  things  which  concern  religion,  but  if  any 
monk  in  my  dominions  dare  to  raise  a  complaint  against 
me,  I  will  have  him  hanged  on  the  highest  tree  of  the 
forest."  In  the  same  way  did  Edward  I  rebel,  and  Edward 
III,  and  Richard  II,  and  Henry  VIII,  while  yet  a  dutiful 
son  of  the  church.  When  they  began  to  press  him  he  said : 
"By  God's  will  we  are  king  of  England,  and  the  kings  of 
England,  in  times  past,  had  never  any  superior  but  God 
only.  Therefore,  know  you  well,  we  will  maintain  the 
right  of  our  crown." 

English  patriotism  was  never  crushed  out  of  English 
hearts,  and  there  was  never  a  time  when  English  subjects 
were  not  ready  to  sustain  their  lawful  princes  in  lawful 
independent  rulership ;  and  there  was  never  a  time  when  the 
more  intelligent  and  nobles  did  not  cry  out  against  the 
usurpations  of  Rome.  They  wished  a  free  church,  too,  as 
well  as  a  free  state.  Our  English  church  ought  not  to  be 
dependent  on  a  foreign  power.  Our  bishops  and  other 
ecclesiastics  ought  not  to  be  appointed  by  a  man  residing  in 
Italy,  whose  appointees  oftentimes  cannot  speak  the  English 
tongue,  and  never  even  put  their  foot  on  English  soil.  These 
vast  revenues  ought  not  to  flow  in  mighty  and  never- 
ceasing  streams  out  of  English  into  Roman  coffers.  These 
papal  legates  ought  not  to  administer  church  affairs  in 
defiance  of  English  laws.  These  ecclesiastical  canons,  made 
in  Italy,  ought  not  to  bind  the  souls  of  Englishmen.  These 
superstitious  and  terrorized  Englishmen,  dying,  ought  not 
by  their  wills  to  alienate  their  estates  from  their  relatives  and 
the  crown  and  give  them  to  the  church,  thus  impoverishing 


Legal  Measures  Against  Papal  Power  89 

England  and  enriching  Rome.  So  men  felt,  and  the  feeling 
found  voice  in  protests  and  indignation  meetings,  and  took 
form  in  parliamentary  statutes:  the  Statute  of  Mortmain 
forbidding  the  church  to  acquire  lands  by  will  (whereby  it 
became  free  from  feudal  dues),  without  the  permission  of 
the  king;  the  Statute  of  Provisors  which  cut  off  the  Pope's 
appointing  power,  taking  out  of  the  court  of  Rome  the  pro- 
visions and  collations  and  reservations  of  English  arch- 
bishoprics, bishoprics,  and  other  benefices,  providing  that 
the  English  kings  and  the  feudal  lords  are  to  present  unto 
benefices  of  their  own  and  their  ancestors  foundations,  and 
not  the  Pope  of  Rome ;  the  Statute  of  Praemunire  prohibit- 
ing the  introduction  of  papal  bulls  into  England,  and  pro- 
hibiting appeals  to  Rome  as  against  the  laws  and  decisions 
of  the  English  church  and  the  realm.  All  who  should 
obey  any  papal  mandate  or  sue  for  redress  in  the  papal 
courts  should  be  put  out  of  the  protection  of  the  law  of 
England,  and  forfeit  all  their  goods  to  the  state.  These 
statutes  show  the  temper  of  the  English  nation;  and  though 
they  often  fell  into  an  innocuous  desuetude,  they  were  often 
revived  and  enforced  with  vigor. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  appreciate  the  influence  of  the 
memory  of  this  history  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  on  the  minds  of  men  who  were  interested  in  Lol- 
lardism,  who  felt  the  touch  of  the  new  learning,  who  knew 
what  Christianity  really  was  from  the  Greek  and  English 
New  Testaments,  who  were  greedily  devouring  the  books 
of  Martin  Luther. 

We  have  thus  far  named  six  influences  which  prepared 
the  English  people  for  the  Reformation.  There  was  a 
seventh  influence  which  gave  weight  and  momentum  to  all 
the  rest : 


90  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

THE  POPULAR  DISCONTENT  WITH   PRIESTLY  DOMINATION 

This  was  a  domination  characterized  by  numberless 
tyrannies,  extortions,  frauds,  and  vices.  Clerical  abuses 
had  risen  to  an  incredible  height. 

First:  The  clergy  of  high  and  low  degree  were 
thoroughly  secularized.  The  best  and  meanest  offices  in  the 
realm  were  held  by  ecclesiastics.  The  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury was  lord  chancellor.  When  Cardinal  Wolsey 
succeeded  to  that  place,  he  was  likewise,  first  and  last, 
bishop  of  Tournai,  of  Lincoln,  of  York,  of  Durham,  and  of 
Winchester.  He  drew  the  revenues  of  these  sees,  though 
his  duties  were  wholly  civil  and  political.  The  lord 
treasurer,  the  secretary  of  state,  the  master  of  the  rolls, 
were  all  bishops.  Foreigners,  who  never  stepped  foot  on 
English  soil,  held  many  of  the  bishoprics.  Nearly  all  the 
diplomatic,  civil,  and  legal  offices  were  held  by  priests  who 
drew  their  pay  from  benefices  which  they  never  visited.  It 
was  not  unusual  for  a  single  clergyman  to  hold  from  six 
to  twenty,  and  never  perform  a  service  in  one  of  them. 

Secondly:  The  clergy  were  free  from  the  secular  juris- 
diction. Offending  laymen  were  tried  in  the  King's  Court, 
but  persons  in  orders  were  remanded  to  the  courts  of  the 
church.  Any  clerk  could  claim  the  "benefit  of  clergy."  And 
a  clerk  came  to  be  one  who  could  read  and  write.  Arrested 
for  any  crime  he  could  elude  the  civil  law  by  simply  writ- 
ing his  name  and  reading  a  sentence  from  a  book.  Once 
removed  to  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  his  escape  was 
almost  certain,  however  heinous  his  crime.  Murder,  arson, 
highway  robbery,  rape,  whatever  the  offense,  the  church 
tribunal  would  free  the  criminal  on  the  payment  of  money. 
This  shocking  abuse  of  privilege  was  a  standing  and  burning 
scandal. 


Immorality  of  the  Clergy  91 

Thirdly :  The  clergy,  for  the  most  part,  were  living  in  the 
grossest  immorality. 

1.  The  parish  priests  were  ignorant  and  incompetent 
men  who  spent  their  time  in  hawking,  dicing,  haunting 
taverns,  and  associating  questionably  with  women.  They 
were  profane  scoundrels,  not  believing  their  own  false- 
hoods; at  their  very  altars  saying,  "Bread  thou  art  and 
bread  thou  wilt  remain."  They  were  ignorant  scoundrels 
having  neither  the  ability  nor  the  inclination  to  compose  a 
sermon,  and  superstitiously  believing  that  their  church  forms 
were  charms  which  neither  heaven  nor  hell  could  resist. 
They  were  carnal  scoundrels,  given  to  sensual  indulgence, 
and  living  for  grossest  pleasures.  They  were  rapacious 
scoundrels,  chiefly  intent  on  fleecing  the  people,  shaving, 
paring,  almost  flaying  the  rich  and  the  poor  alike — doing 
everything  for  money.  Give  us  money  and  we  will  let  you 
eat  meat  on  fast  days ;  money,  and  cousins  may  wed ;  money, 
and  we  will  christen  you;  money,  and  we  will  marry  you; 
money,  and  we  will  bury  you;  money,  and  we  will  pray 
your  soul  out  of  purgatory.  At  every  turn  and  for  every 
service,  give  us  money.  Say  a  word  against  these  pilferings, 
and  only  money  can  save  you  from  excommunication.  And 
once  cast  out,  the  plight  of  no  wretch  can  possibly  be  worse. 
No  man  shall  sell  you  food  or  drink  or  raiment.  No  man 
shall  wish  you  a  good  morning,  or  give  you  any  succor.  All 
men  shall  shun  and  abhor  you,  and  you  shall  die  like  a  dog, 
and  no  holy  ground  shall  hold  your  carcass,  and  hell  shall 
scorch  your  soul  forever. 

2.  The  friars  were  worse  than  the  parish  priests.  In 
their  early  history  the  Dominicans,  and  Franciscans,  and 
later  the  Augustinians  and  the  Carmelites,  and  the  other 
lesser  orders,  gained  the  favor  of  the  people  by  their  earnest 
preaching  and  their  ministering  to  the  poor  and  suffering; 


92  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

but  before  Wiclif's  day  they  had  lost  their  sanctity,  and  at 
the  dawn  of  the  sixteenth  century  these  barefooted  mendi- 
cants were  held  in  general  contempt. 

3.  The  monks  were  as  bad  as  the  priests  and  friars. 
Erasmus  has  this  to  say  of  them : 

A  monk's  holy  obedience  consists  in  what?  In  leading  an  honest, 
chaste  and  sober  life?— not  the  least.  In  acquiring  learning,  in  study, 
and  industry?— still  less.  A  monk  may  be  a  glutton,  a  drunkard,  a 
whoremonger,  an  ignorant,  stupid,  malignant,  envious  brute,  but  he  has 
broken  no  vow,  he  is  still  within  his  holy  obedience.  He  has  only  to 
be  the  slave  of  a  superior  as  good  for  nothing  as  himself,  and  he  is 

an  excellent  brother The  stupid  monks  say  mass  as  a  cobbler 

makes  a  shoe;  they  come  to  the  altar  reeking  from  their  filthy 
pleasures.  Confession,  with  the  monk,  is  a  cloak  to  steal  the  people's 
money,  to  rob  girls  of  their  virtue,  and  commit  other  crimes  too 
horrible  to  name.     Yet  these  people  are  the  tyrants  of  Europe.     The 

Pope  himself  is  afraid  of  them Beware,  how  you  offend  the 

monks,  you  have  to  do  with  an  enemy  that  cannot  be  slain;  an  order 
never  dies,  and  they  will  never  rest  until  they  have  destroyed  you. 

Fourthly :  These  puissant,  and  counterfeit  holy  and  idle 
beggars  and  vagabonds  kept  the  people  in  thrall  by  their 
appeal  to  superstition  and  fraud.  England  was  filled  with 
shrines  and  images  and  holy  wells  and  relics  at  which 
miracles  were  performed  in  attestation  of  the  pretensions 
of  the  priesthood.  Everywhere  were  to  be  found  bleeding 
wafers,  and  winking  statues,  and  wonder-working  remains 
of  saints  and  martyrs.  At  Canterbury  they  had  a  fragment 
of  Christ's  robe,  and  three  splinters  from  the  crown  of 
thorns,  and  a  lock  of  Mary's  hair,  and  a  shoulder-blade  of 
Saint  Simeon,  and  a  tooth  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  parts  of 
the  crosses  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Andrew,  and  a  tooth  and  a 
finger  of  St.  Stephen,  and  a  lip  of  one  of  the  innocent  babes 
whom  Herod  slew,  and  the  bowels  of  St.  Lawrence,  and 
innumerable  teeth  and  fingers  and  bones  and  intestines  and 


Appeal  to  Fraud  and  Superstition  93 

legs  of  departed  worthies.  In  one  of  the  cloisters  was  a 
fountain  which  flowed  sometimes  with  water,  sometimes 
with  milk,  sometimes  with  blood.  In  a  Norfolk  village 
were  wells  which  had  been  instantly  created  by  the  Virgin 
Mary,  and  which  cured  head  and  stomach  diseases.  They 
had  a  flask  which  had  been  filled  with  milk  drawn  direct 
from  the  Virgin's  breasts,  and  they  had  other  milk  which 
had  been  dropped  on  the  stones  as  she  sat  at  different  times, 
and  which  had  been  scraped  up  and  miraculously  preserved. 
At  one  place  they  had  the  image  of  the  Virgin  and  Child. 
When  the  penitent  made  a  handsome  offering  the  infant 
Jesus  bowed  its  head  approvingly;  when  the  offering  was 
small  the  child  slowly  turned  its  head  away.  At  Boxley  the 
large  miracle-working  crucifix  made  a  bow  when  the  offer- 
ing was  large.  In  later  times  the  wires  and  pulleys  by 
which  the  thing  had  been  worked  were  exhibited  to  the 
people. 

Fifthly:  Friars,  priests  and  monks  carried  their  super- 
stitions into  the  other  world,  and  peopled  that  world  with 
saints  and  martyrs  as  numerous  and  powerful  as  the  gods 
and  goddesses  of  the  Greek  mythology.    Erasmus  says : 

Some  worship  divers  Gods  with  divers  ceremonies.  This  man 
every  day  salutes  Christopher  and  visits  his  image,  with  what  object? 
Because  he  persuades  himself  if  he  does  so  he  will  that  day  be  safe 
from  an  evil  death.  Another  adores  a  certain  Rochus.  Why?  Be- 
cause he  believes  that  he  will  drive  away  the  plague.  Another  mut- 
ters prayers  to  Barbara  or  George;  that  he  may  not  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  enemy.  This  man  fasts  to  Apollonia,  that  he  may  escape 
the  toothache.  Another  visits  the  image  of  St.  Job,  that  he  may  avoid 
the  itch.  In  fact,  as  many  things  as  there  are  that  we  either  fear  or 
wish  for,  so  many  Gods  have  we  made  for  them. 

Sixthly:  The  clergy  were  working  their  doctrine  of 
purgatory  for  all  the  money  there  was  in  it.  Every  dead 
man  went  straight  to  purgatory.     How  could  he  be  got 


94  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

out?  The  priest  could  pray  him  out.  A  pater  noster  in 
the  mouth  of  a  monk  had  a  magical  effect.  Say  the  Lord's 
Prayer  in  Latin — say  it  forward  and  heaven  yields,  say  it 
backward  and  the  imps  in  hell  cannot  resist.  England  was 
swarming  with  these  mass-priests,  saying  their  mass- 
prayers,  saying  them  over  and  over  again,  and  the  saying 
freed  the  soul  from  the  fires  of  purgatory — but  the  saying 
must  be  paid  for.  Nothing  for  nothing,  but  everything  for 
money.  On  certain  days,  in  certain  churches,  put  a  shilling 
on  the  plate  and  the  soul  of  your  friend  is  prayed  out.  That 
day  they  are  praying  them  out,  just  as  on  Mondays  certain 
dry-goods  stores  in  the  city  are  selling  silk  at  ten  cents  per 
yard.    One  man  put  in  his  shilling. 

"Is  my  friend's  soul  out?" 

"Yes." 

"Sure?" 

"Sure." 

"All  right,  you  cannot  get  him  In  again.  It  was  a  bad 
shilling." 

We  have  given  the  merest  glimpse  or  hint  of  the  cor- 
rupt power  of  the  church  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Of  course,  as  a  consequence,  the  social  state  of 
England  was  thoroughly  rotten.  Nevertheless  there  re- 
mained intelligence  enough  and  decency  enough  to  see 
clearly  and  feel  deeply  that  religion  was  horribly  misrepre- 
sented by  the  prevailing  practices  and  that  a  thoroughgoing 
reformation  was  sorely  needed.  When  it  has  come  to  this, 
as  Erasmus  says,  that  "the  theologians  are  careful  that  the 
Sacred  Scriptures  shall  be  known  but  to  few,  lest  their 
authority  and  their  gains  shall  be  interfered  with;"  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  is  in  itself  a  crime  against  the 
church;  that  men  are  burned  at  the  stake  for  the  bare 
opinion  that  the  Scriptures  ought  to  be  given  to  the  people 


Evils  to  Be  Remedied 


95 


in  the  vulgar  tongue;  that  sermons  are  seldom  heard  from 
the  pulpits  of  the  land,  and  when  heard  are  less  seldom 
based  on  the  Bible;  that  the  worship  of  God  has  well-nigh 
ceased  throughout  England,  and  the  most  grotesque  polythe- 
ism has  become  the  religion  of  the  people;  that  rival  keepers 
of  shrines  are  resorting  to  the  most  absurd  falsehoods 
and  the  most  barefaced  frauds  to  attract  the  patronage 
of  the  ignorant  and  the  superstitious;  that  dirty  mendi- 
cants, worthy  only  of  contempt,  are  swarming  in  every  part 
of  the  land;  that  begging  friars  and  monks,  under  vows  of 
poverty,  are  the  possessors  of  grand  buildings  and  vast 
estates;  that  their  monasteries,  subject  directly  to  the  Pope, 
are  beyond  the  control  of  kings  and  bishops;  that  within 
the  Dominican  and  Franciscan  gate,  the  mendicant  can  bid 
defiance  to  all  the  world  save  the  Pope;  that  the  king  him- 
self, and  the  archbishop  can  be  bolted  out;  that  the  worst 
criminal  in  all  the  borders  can  be  bolted  in,  and  kings, 
cardinals,  and  metropolitans  are  powerless  to  reach  him; 
that  ecclesiastics  of  high  and  low  degree  can  plead  the 
"benefit  of  clergy,"  and  so  escape  the  consequences  of  their 
crime;  that  bishops  can  have  their  own  courts  and  their 
own  prisons,  can  drag  laymen  to  their  dungeons  for  sus- 
pected heresy,  can  burn  inoffensive  citizens  for  their 
opinions,  can  let  scot  free  priests  and  monks  whose  vices 
and  crimes  are  notorious,  can  kill  their  own  parishioners 
in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  seize  their  property,  and  claim 
immunity  for  their  murders  and  thieveries  as  a  privilege  of 
their  order;  that  every  service  of  religion  and  every  crime 
in  the  calendar  has  its  price  in  the  coin  of  the  realm,  that 
money  can  condone  the  scandalous  lives  of  priests  and  nuns, 
money  can  commute  penance,  money  can  give  help  at  every 
holy  shrine  and  well  and  wonder-working  image  and  cruci- 
fix in  all  England,  money  can  buy  the  Pope's  bull,  money 


96  Preparations  for  the  English  Reformation 

can  give  an  indulgence,  a  plenary  remission  of  sins  to  the 
most  profligate,  money  can  open  the  gates  of  purgatory, 
money,  given  at  certain  altars,  can  lessen  the  purgatorial 
fires  by  one  hundred,  a  thousand,  by  ten  thousand  years — 
at  one  place,  at  small  expense,  by  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  years — that  money  can  open  the  gates  of  heaven 
■ — when  things  had  come  to  such  a  pass  as  this  that  priests 
were  everywhere  watching  the  conduct  of  men  and  women, 
that  their  presence  and  influence  were  felt  at  every  impor- 
tant stage  of  life,  at  birth,  at  christening,  at  marriage,  in 
youth,  in  age,  at  death,  in  the  making  and  probating  of 
wills,  at  the  crowning  of  the  king,  in  every  great  and  petty 
office  in  the  land,  in  the  domestic  circle,  in  the  social  life,  in 
state  courts  and  church  courts  alike,  in  civil  concerns,  in  all 
national  and  international  relations — present  everywhere  and 
present  only  to  corrupt,  to  pilfer,  to  terrorize,  and  to  destroy, 
is  it  any  wonder  that  there  were  many  in  England  who  had 
grown  restless  under  this  dominance  of  priestcraft  and 
churchcraft,  many  who  were  irritated  and  at  last  outraged 
by  these  ecclesiastical  abuses,  many  who  hated  these  papisti- 
cal enormities,  many  who  were  ready  to  reject  the  false 
teachings  of  the  church,  to  deny  the  special  efficacy  of  its 
ceremonies  and  worship,  to  advocate  national  rights  and 
liberties  against  these  papal  usurpations,  to  look  longingly 
for  the  time  when  an  open  revolt  from  this  priestly  domina- 
tion and  these  clerical  vices,  frauds,  and  extortions,  would 
relieve  the  English  nation  from  an  incumbrance  that  had 
become  unbearable? 

The  Reformation  was  surely  near  at  hand.  Many  influ- 
ences had  combined  to  make  it  possible  and  certain.  The 
Wiclifites,  though  remorselessly  persecuted,  were  still  a 
numerous  people  and  were  doing  an  effectual  preparatory 
work  in  many  English  hearts.  The  English  Humanists  were 


Reforming  Influences  at  Work  97 

expounding  the  New  Testament,  exhibiting  the  primitive 
Christianity,  inveighing  against  ecclesiastical  abuses,  and  in- 
augurating in  the  universities  and  among  the  learned  and 
influential  an  educational  and  religious  reform.  Erasmus 
was  publishing  his  Greek  Testament  whose  evangelizing 
effects  were  being  mightily  felt  in  Oxford,  Cambridge, 
and  London.  Tyndale,  in  the  face  of  infinite  difficulty  and 
peril,  was  circulating  his  English  Bible,  and  planting  every- 
where among  the  people  the  seeds  of  intellectual  freedom 
and  spiritual  life.  The  constant  meddling  of  Rome  with 
the  civil  and  religious  affairs  of  England  was  breeding  a 
fresh  jealousy  and  arousing  a  fresh  resentment  against 
Italian  interference  and  encroachment.  And  these  vices 
and  frauds  and  extortions  which  the  church  at  home 
countenanced  and  fostered  were  engendering  a  popular  dis- 
content which  would  brook  no  restraint  when  the  time  for 
revolt  should  come.  Under  present,  potent,  and  abiding 
influences  such  as  these,  the  English  people  were  getting 
ready  for  approaching  change.  In  spite  of  popes  and  kings 
the  Reformation  was  bound  to  come. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  year,   the  class  will  be 
engaged  in  watching  the  terrific  struggle. 


Ill 

THE  DOCTRINAL  FORMULARIES  SET  FORTH 
IN  THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VIII 


Ill 

THE  DOCTRINAL  FORMULARIES  SET  FORTH 
IN  THE  REIGN  OF  HENRY  VIII 

Henry  VIII  sat  on  the  English  throne  nearly  forty 
years.  After  the  rupture  with  Rome,  in  the  last  decade  of 
his  reign,  five  doctrinal  formularies  were  set  forth,  as 
follows:  (i)  the  Ten  Articles,  in  1536;  (2)  the  Institu- 
tion of  a  Christian  Man,  in  1537;  (3)  the  Thirteen  Articles, 
in  1538;  (4)  the  Six  Articles,  in  1539;  (5)  the  Necessary 
Doctrine  and  Erudition  for  Any  Christian  Man,  in  1543. 
The  purpose  of  this  paper  is  threefold  :  ( i )  to  describe  the 
circumstances  under  which  these  several  formularies  were 
issued;  (2)  to  examine  the  formularies  themselves  with 
reference  to  their  doctrinal  import;  and  (3)  to  exhibit  the 
varying  fortunes  of  the  English  Reformation  in  the  light 
of  these  circumstances  and  formularies.  Of  course,  in  a 
single  paper,  the  subject  can  be  treated  only  in  a  cursory 
manner. 

I.       THE  TEN  ARTICLES 

They  were  issued  in  1536,  the  year  in  which  the  refor- 
mation Parliament  ended,  and  in  which  the  act  was  passed 
for  the  "Suppression  of  the  Lesser  Monasteries,"  and  in 
which  Ann  Boleyn  was  beheaded.  It  was  the  year  after 
Bishop  Fisher  and  Sir  Thomas  More  had  been  executed 
for  refusing  to  take  the  "Succession  Oath."  Two  years 
before,  the  "Act  of  Supremacy"  had  been  passed;  and 
three  years  before,  Cranmer  had  become  archbishop  of 
Canterbury. 

These  and  other  great  proceedings  were  the  outcome, 


I02  Doctrinal  Formularies  0}  Henry  VIII 

directly  or  indirectly,  of  the  religious  reformatory  move- 
ment which  was  in  progress.  The  minds  of  men  were 
mightily  stirred,  and  the  greatest  diversity  and  hostility  of 
sentiment  existed  among  the  clergy,  the  gentry,  and  the 
people.  All  classes  were  involved,  and  the  nation  found 
itself  divided  into  excited  and  warring  camps.  On  one  side 
was  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  on  the  other  the  arch- 
bishop of  York.  Cranmer  of  Canterbury,  Latimer  of  Wor- 
cester, Saxton  of  Salisbury,  Hilsey  of  Rochester,  Goodrich 
of  Ely,  Fox  of  Hereford,  with  other  learned  and  powerful 
bishops,  leaned  strongly  toward  the  new  religious  ideas 
which  were  bearing  sway  in  Germany.  Lee  of  York, 
Stokesley  of  London,  Gardiner  of  Winchester,  Longland 
of  Lincoln,  Tonstall  of  Durham,  with  other  learned  and 
powerful  bishops,  leaned  as  strongly  toward  the  old  papal 
doctrines  and  ceremonials.  The  aristocracy  and  the  peas- 
antry were  in  a  like  manner  broken  into  hostile  factions. 
Both  parties  sought  the  king's  support,  and  both  had  influ- 
ential friends  near  the  throne.  Henry  wavered  between 
the  two.  At  times  he  sided  with  the  reformers  (as  when 
he  was  suppressing  the  monasteries),  at  other  times  with 
the  champions  of  Rome.  So  the  fortunes  of  the  advocates 
of  the  old  system  and  of  the  new  fluctuated.  Sometimes 
the  party  of  progress  seemed  in  the  ascendant,  sometimes 
the  party  of  reaction,  Henry's  dominating  purpose  was  to 
maintain  his  ecclestiastical  supremacy  against  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  Pope,  and  he  was  steadily  consistent  in  his 
vacillating  inconsistency.  Designedly,  or  fortuitously,  he 
played  the  two  parties  against  each  other,  and  both  in  his 
own  interests. 

Such  was  the  religious  status  when  the  Convocation  of 
Canterbury  met  in  1536  (June  9).  The  reforming  bishops, 
with  Cranmer  at  their  head,  were  determined  to  introduce 


Latimer's  Sermon  Before  the  Convocation  103 

certain  of  the  new  German  doctrinal  views  into  the  EngHsh 
church.  The  archbishop  put  Latimer  forward  to  preach  the 
opening  sermons  (morning  and  evening).  They  were  such 
discourses  as  Dean  Colet  had  deHvered  to  convocations  a 
quarter  of  a  century  before.  He  drew  up  a  bill  of  indict- 
ment, severe  but  truthful,  against  the  bishops  and  clergy  of 
the  realm.  He  accused  them  of  causing  "works  lucrative, 
will-works,  men's  fancies,  to  reign,  while  Christian  works, 
necessary  works,  fruitful  works  to  be  trodden  under  foot." 
He  accused  them  of  seldom  preaching,  and  hindering  those 
who  would  preach.  He  inveighed  against  the  corruption 
and  bribery  of  the  church  courts;  against  the  numerous 
holy  days  spent  in  rioting  and  debauchery;  against  masses 
and  images  and  pilgrimages;  against  the  use  of  Latin  in 
marriages  and  baptisms.  "Come,  my  brethren,  leave  the 
love  of  your  profit.  Feed  the  flock  of  Christ.  Preach  truly 
the  word  of  God.  Walk  in  the  light."  He  gave  two  red- 
hot  sermons,  true  and  scorching,  sermons  suited  to  the  occa- 
sion, such  as  only  Hugh  Latimer  could  give.  It  would  be 
impossible  to  report  the  fiery  eloquence  of  England's  great- 
est preacher. 

Cranmer  supported  Latimer's  position  by  proving  that 
the  Scriptures  alone  are  the  all-sufficient  standard  of  faith 
and  practice;  and  by  proving  that  tradition  is  uncertain, 
contradictory,  and  worthless.  Fox  supported  Latimer  and 
Cranmer  by  insisting  that  the  English  laity  were  everywhere 
rejecting  the  authority  of  the  ancient  fathers  and  of  mother 
church,  and  were  everywhere  insisting  on  instruction  drawn 
directly  from  the  inspired  revelation.  Cromwell  lent  his 
powerful  support  to  these  reforming  bishops,  and  used  all 
the  influence  of  his  high  position  to  force  acquiescence  in 
their  salutary  measures. 

But  in  the  Convocation  the  Pope  was  not  without  his 


I04  Doctrinal  Formularies  0}  Henry  VIII 

champions — bishops  and  prelates  as  determined  and  as 
aggressive  as  the  advocates  of  reform;  men  ready  to  die 
for  their  opinions,  and  set  in  hot  resistance  to  every  man- 
ner of  innovation  and  change;  men  who  believed  that  king 
and  chancellor  and  metropolitan  were  totally  wrong,  that 
pontiff  and  mother  church  were  wholly  right;  defiant  men 
were  they,  hating  the  encroachments  on  papal  prerogatives 
already  made,  and  binding  themselves  under  vows  and  oaths 
against  further  advances. 

Thus  in  the  Convocation  the  papal  and  anti-papal  parties 
were  fronting  each  other,  the  old  and  the  new,  the  conserva- 
tive and  the  radical,  the  reactionary  and  the  progressive. 
Which  side  will  King  Henry  take?  Two  considerations 
sway  his  mind:  (i)  just  now  he  is  in  need  of  Protestant 
help  on  the  Continent  against  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope; 
and  (2)  the  Catholic  party  in  Convocation,  not  content  with 
retaining  Romish  doctrine  and  ceremonial,  wish  to  go  far- 
ther and  undo  the  work  of  the  reformation  Parliament,  to 
undo  divorce  decrees,  and  succession  oaths,  and  clergy  sub- 
missions, and  praemunire  statutes,  and  tithing  bills,  and 
monastery  dissolutions,  and  supremacy  acts,  and  all  the 
legislation  which  had  freed  England  from  the  thraldom  of 
Rome.  To  maintain  the  ground  he  had  already  won  was 
Henry's  fixed  resolve.  Not  to  pass  beyond  the  political  and 
financial  victories  he  had  gained  into  that  doctrinal  struggle, 
which  Martin  Luther  was  so  successfully  maintaining, 
was  likewise  his  resolute  determination.  The  great  Ger- 
man had  once  said,  "When  God  wants  a  fool  he  turns  a 
king  into  a  theological  writer,"  and  Henry  had  never  for- 
given him.  He  hated  the  innovations  of  the  German  leader 
almost  as  much  as  the  universal  supremacy  of  the  Roman 
pontiff.  Forward  with  the  reform  bishops  of  the  English 
church  he  would  never  go;  backward  with  his   Catholic 


The  Ten  Articles  of  Religion  105 

bishops  he  could  never  retreat.     Is  he  politician  enough  to 
retain  the  confidence  and  support  of  both? 

The  Convocation  convened  on  June  9,  1536.  On  July 
II,  Henry  was  ready  with  a  doctrinal  manifesto.  In  it  he 
sided  against  the  papal  bishops,  sided  with  the  reforming 
bishops  (or  rather  sat  on  the  fence,  leaning  toward  the 
reform  side).  The  manifesto  took  the  form  of  'Ten 
Articles"  of  religion — five  of  them  chiefly  doctrinal,  squint- 
ing toward  the  new  views,  five  of  them  chiefly  ceremonial, 
half  squinting  toward  the  old  customs;  the  first  five  drawn 
mainly  from  the  Lutheran  Augsburg  Confession  or  from 
commentaries  on  it;  the  second  five  drawn  from  super- 
stitious observances  with  which  the  English  people  had  been 
familiar  for  centuries.  Both  houses  of  Convocation  passed 
the  "Ten  Articles,"  and  they  were  immediately  published 
under  the  title  "Articles  devised  by  the  King's  Highness 
Majesty,'to  establish  Christian  quietness  and  unity  among  us, 
and  to  avoid  contentious  opinions :  which  Articles  be  ap- 
proved by  the  consent  and  determination  of  the  whole 
clergy  of  the  realm."    For  substance  these  are  the  Articles: 

1.  The  standard  of  authority  is  the  Bible,  together  with 
the  Apostles',  Nicene,  and  Athanasian  creeds  and  the  find- 
ings of  the  first  four  ecumenical  councils.  Here  is  a 
decided  victory  for  the  reformers,  for  the  Bible  is  given 
the  chief  place,  and  tradition  no  place  at  all. 

2.  Baptism  is  necessary  for  salvation.  Neither  adults 
nor  infants  can  be  saved  without  it.  Infants  "shall  un- 
doubtedly be  saved  thereby,  and  else  not."  Here  reformers 
and  Romanists  hold  common  ground,  and  both  share  in  the 
victory  over  Anabaptists  and  Pelagians,  whose  opinions  are 
detestable  heresies. 

3.  Penance  is  necessary  for  salvation.  In  the  enlarge- 
ment of  this  article  both  reformer  and  Romanist  can  claim 


io6  Doctrinal  Formularies  of  Henry  VIII 

the  victory.  When  the  article  says  we  are  justified  and 
pardoned  solely  by  faith  in  the  mercy  of  God  in  Christ,  the 
reformers  are  pleased;  when  it  goes  on  to  say  that  a  con- 
fession to  a  priest  is  useful  for  the  comfort  of  men's 
conscience,  and  that  priestly  absolution  is  the  same  as  God's 
forgiveness,  the  Romanists  are  pleased. 

4.  In  the  Eucharist  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ  are 
present  under  the  form  of  bread  and  wine.  If  this  is  meant 
to  teach  consubstantiation,  the  reformers  are  satisfied;  if 
it  means  transubstantiation,  the  Romanists  have  no  fault 
to  find. 

5.  Justification  signifies  the  remission  of  sins,  and  a 
perfect  renovation  of  nature  in  Christ.  A  triumph  for  the 
reformers. 

In  the  first  five  articles  we  have  a  fairly  good  statement 
of  the  Lutheran  theology.  In  the  last  five  the  balance  dips 
toward  Rome. 

6.  The  sixth  article  is  concerning  images.  Scripture 
warrants  their  use.  They  serve  to  stir  up  devotion.  They 
ought  to  be  set  up  in  the  churches.  Teach  the  people  that, 
in  kneeling  and  worshiping  before  them,  they  are  to  wor- 
ship not  the  image,  but  God. 

7.  Concerning  saint-worship.  Instruct  the  people  to 
honor  the  Virgin  and  the  saints,  to  thank  Heaven  for  them, 
to  imitate  their  virtues,  but  not  to  expect  from  them  what 
God  alone  can  bestow. 

8.  Concerning  prayers  to  the  saints.  It  is  good  to  pray 
to  them  to  pray  for  us  and  with  us. 

9.  Concerning  church  ceremonies.  It  is  good  and  law- 
ful to  wear  vestments  in  public  worship,  to  sprinkle  holy 
water,  to  give  holy  bread,  to  bear  candles  on  Candlemas 
day,  to  bear  ashes  on  Ash  Monday,  to  bear  palms  on  Palm 
Sunday,  to  creep  to  the  cross  and  kiss  it  on  Good  Friday — 


Unsatisjactory,  But  a  Gain  for  Reform  107 

to  indulge  in  all  these  accredited  ceremonies,  exorcisms, 
and  benedictions  of  the  church. 

10.  The  last  article  was  concerning  purgatory.  Here 
the  king  tried  to  ride  two  horses  moving  in  opposite  direc- 
tions, and  he  succeeded.  Both  reformers  and  Romanists 
could  extract  comfort  from  it,  and  in  about  equal  measure. 
As  Hume  says,  the  article  "contains  the  most  curious  jargon, 
ambiguity,  and  hesitation,  arising  from  the  mixture  of  the 
two  tenets."  The  people  were  to  believe  it  good  and 
charitable  to  pray  for  the  souls  of  the  departed;  but  since 
the  place  they  were  in,  and  the  pain  they  suffered,  were 
uncertain  by  Scripture,  people  ought  to  remit  them  to  God's 
mercy.  Therefore,  all  abuses  of  the  doctrine  ought  to  be 
put  away,  and  the  people  disengaged  from  believing  that 
popish  masses,  or  prayers  said  in  certain  places,  and  before 
certain  images,  could  deliver  souls  out  of  purgatory. 

Just  here,  in  these  Ten  Articles,  we  have  the  first  doc- 
trinal deliverance  of  the  Church  of  England.  They  grew 
at  last  into  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.  Fox  says  they  were  "intended  for  weaklings 
newly  weaned  from  their  mother's  milk  of  Rome."  Never- 
theless, they  constituted,  on  the  whole,  a  real  triumph  for 
the  reforming  party.  The  authority  of  Scripture  was 
recognized,  tradition  was  excluded,  peace  with  God  was  no 
longer  purchasable  with  money,  the  direct  worship  of 
saints  and  images  was  condemned,  purgatory  was  left 
uncertain,  and  trade  in  purgatorial  wares  was  well-nigh 
ruined,  and  four  of  the  seven  sacraments  were  passed  by  in 
silence.  This  immense  gain  decidedly  offset  the  retention 
of  confession,  the  real  presence  (in  the  Lutheran  sense), 
homage  to  images,  and  mere  praying  to  saints.  Seeking  the 
aid  of  German  Lutherans  against  the  Emperor  and  fearing 
the  emissaries  of  the  Pope  in  England,  Henry  had  framed 


io8  Doctrinal  Formularies  of  Henry  VIII 

the  Ten  Articles  to  a  perceptible  degree  in  the  interest  of 
the  party  of  reform  and  progress. 

The  articles  were  signed  by  Cromwell,  representing  the 
king,  by  the  archbishop,  sixteen  bishops,  forty  abbots  and 
priors,  and  by  fifty  members  of  the  Lower  House.  Henry 
added  a  preface,  and  they  were  published  and  circulated. 

The  king  was  determined  that  all  Englishmen  should  be 
of  one  mind  on  the  subject  of  religion,  and  that  the  Ten 
Articles  should  exactly  express  that  mind.  So,  in  his  own 
name,  and  on  his  own  authority,  he  sent  to  the  clergy  of  the 
realm  a  set  of  "Royal  Injunctions."  This  was  the  first 
document  of  this  kind  in  English  history,  but  we  shall  run 
across  similar  documents  frequently  in  subsequent  reigns. 
For  substance  these  were  the  Injunctions : 

( I )  Twice  every  quarter  the  clergy  must  preach  that  the 
Pope's  power  is  usurped,  but  that  the  king's  supremacy  is 
scriptural.  (2)  They  must  make  the  people  acquainted  with 
the  Ten  Articles.  (3)  They  must  proclaim  that  church  holy 
days  falling  in  harvest  time  are  abolished.  (4)  They  must 
dissuade  the  people  from  superstitions  connected  with  pil- 
grimages and  image-worship,  and  exhort  them  to  stay  at 
home,  and  mind  their  families,  and  keep  God's  command- 
ments. (5)  They  must  provide  for  the  orderly  and  reverent 
administration  of  the  sacraments.  (6)  They  must  see  that 
old  and  young  learn  the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the 
Ten  Commandments  in  the  English  language.  (7)  They 
themselves  must  not  haunt  taverns  and  alehouses,  nor  sit 
long  at  games,  but  give  themselves  to  the  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures and  to  a  good  life.  (8)  If  their  income  is  twenty 
pounds  a  year,  they  must  give  a  fortieth  part  to  the  poor. 
(9)  If  their  income  is  one  hundred  pounds  a  year,  they 
must  maintain  a  student  at  the  university;  and  so  many 
hundreds  a  year,  so  many  students.  (10)  One-fifth  part  of 


The  Anti-Rejorm  Pilgrimage  0}  Grace  109 

their  benefices  they  must  give  to  the  repair  of  their  par- 
sonages and  the  chancels  of  their  churches. 

II.       THE  INSTITUTION  OF  A  CHRISTIAN  MAN 

The  transactions  thus  far  narrated  all  occurred  in  1536. 
We  are  ready  now  to  take  up  the  second  formulary  set  forth 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  It  is  known  as  The  Institution 
of  a  Christian  Man  and  also  as  The  Bishops'  Book.  In  the 
north  of  England  especially  there  was  great  dissatisfaction 
with  the  new  order  of  things.  The  dissolution  of  the  lesser 
monasteries,  the  "Ten  Articles,"  and  the  "Royal  Injunc- 
tions" gave  rise  to  deep  and  bitter  feelings  of  resentment.  In 
October  of  this  very  year,  1536,  an  insurrection  broke  out 
in  Lincolnshire.  A  more  formidable  uprising  soon  followed 
in  Yorkshire.  The  northern  clergy  joined  the  insurgents, 
and,  at  an  irregular  meeting  held  at  York,  formulated  a 
protest  against  all  recent  departures  from  popery.  The 
Pope  is  the  real  head  of  the  church.  He  ought  to  be  so 
acknowledged.  Books  urging  this  view  ought  not  to  be  pro- 
hibited. The  king's  highness  cannot  be  the  supreme  head  of 
the  church.  No  temporal  man  can  have  spiritual  jurisdic- 
tion. Parliament  cannot  pass  an  act  making  it  legal. 
Priests  who  have  fled  the  country  for  denying  the  king's 
supremacy  ought  to  be  recalled.  The  Pope's  dispensations 
and  indulgences  are  good.  The  rights  of  sanctuary  ought 
to  be  respected.  Lands  and  wealth  given  to  God  cannot  be 
taken  away.  First-fruits  and  tithes  belong  to  the  clergy  and 
cannot  be  given  to  the  king. 

This  anti-reform,  pro-papal  sentiment  developed  into 
open  resistance,  and  twenty  thousand  men  marched  for 
London  on  a  "pilgrimage  of  grace."  Henry's  troops  stopped 
their  progress,  and,  on  promise  of  pardon,  having  declared 
their  grievances,  they  dispersed.     Then  the  king  took  his 


no  Doctrinal  Formularies  of  Henry  VIII 

vengeance  on  leaders  and  followers  alike.    For  seven  months 
the  flow  of  blood  continued.    His  orders  to  Norfolk  were : 

In  any  wise  to  cause  such  dreadful  execution  to  be  done  upon  a 
good  number  of  the  inhabitants  of  every  town,  village,  hamlet,  that 
has  offended  in  this  rebellion,  as  well  by  the  hanging  them  up  to 
trees,  as  by  the  quartering  them  and  the  setting  their  heads  and 
quarters  in  every  town,  as  may  be  a  fearful  spectacle  to  all  others. 

Of  the  ringleaders,  some  were  hanged  in  chains, 
some  were  beheaded  and  quartered,  some  were  burned  at  the 
stake.  These  were  monks  and  abbots,  knights  and  peers, 
women  and  men.  The  carnage  was  frightful,  but  we  must 
not  forget  that  had  the  "pilgrimage  of  grace"  succeeded, 
the  "janizaries  of  the  papacy"  would  have  restored  the 
Roman  pontiff;  the  Catholic  bishops  would  have  kindled 
again  the  Smithfield  fires  in  every  part  of  the  land ;  the  rising 
English  liberty  would  have  been  quenched  in  blood;  and 
England  herself  would  have  shared  the  unspeakable  horrors 
which  soon  after  fell  upon  the  Netherlands  and  France. 

Henry  had  formulated  the  Ten  Articles  to  "establish 
Christian  quietness  and  unity,  and  to  avoid  contentious 
opinions."  The  "pilgrimage  of  grace"  made  it  evident  that 
the  Articles  were  not  a  conspicuous  success  as  a  sedative. 
They  might  more  justly  be  styled  an  irritant.  To  remedy 
this  defect,  early  in  1537,  Cromwell  organized  a  meeting  of 
the  bishops.  To  the  assembled  representatives  of  the  church 
he  made  an  address  in  which  he  told  them  of  the  king's 
desire  that  something  should  be  drawn  up  which  should  help 
the  people  to  know  what  to  believe  better  than  the  Ten 
Articles  had  done.  Cranmer  followed  Cromwell  in  an 
address  in  which  he  maintained  that  there  ought  to  be  a  dis- 
tinction drawn  between  sacraments  and  ceremonies,  and 
that  there  were  in  reality  only  two  sacraments  strictly  so 
called.    This  made  Stokesley,  bishop  of  London,  angry,  and 


The  Genesis  of  the  Bishops^  Book  iii 

he  followed  with  a  heated  rejoinder.  Then  Fox,  of  Here- 
ford, made  reply  to  Stokesley  in  the  course  of  which  he  said, 
defying  all  the  popish  bishops  : 

Think  not  that  we  can  by  any  sophistical  subtleties  steal  out  of  the 
world  again  the  light  that  every  man  doth  see.  Christ  hath  so  light- 
ened the  world  at  this  time  that  the  light  of  the  gospel  hath  put  to 
flight  all  misty  darkness,  and  it  will  shortly  have  the  higher  hand  of 
all  clouds,  though  we  resist  in  vain  ever  so  much.  The  lay  people  do 
now  know  the  Scriptures  better  than  many  of  us,  and  the  Germans 
have  made  the  texts  of  the  Bible  so  plain  and  easy  by  the  Greek  and 
Hebrew  tongue,  that  now  many  things  may  be  better  understood  with- 
out any  glosses  at  all  than  by  all  the  commentaries  of  the  doctors. 
And,  moreover,  they  have  so  opened  these  controversies  by  their 
writings  that  women  and  children  may  wonder  at  the  blindness  and 
falsehoods  that  have  been  hitherto.  Truth  is  the  daughter  of  time, 
and  time  is  the  mother  of  truth,  and  whatsoever  is  besieged  of  truth 
cannot  long  continue,  and  upon  whose  side  truth  doth  stand,  that 
ought  not  to  be  thought  transitory,  or  that  it  will  ever  fall. 

The  meeting  was  a  stormy  one,  but  it  resulted  in  the 
appointment  of  all  the  bishops,  eight  archdeacons,  and 
seventeen  doctors  of  divinity  and  civil  law,  to  draw  a  book 
of  religious  instruction.  In  May,  1537,  the  book  was  finished 
and  sent  to  the  printer.  Its  title  is  The  Institution  of  a 
Christian  Man.  It  is  also  known  as  The  Bishops'  Book. 
The  meeting  of  the  committee  was  held  at  Lambeth  Palace 
(the  London  residence  of  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury). 
The  printing  of  the  work,  when  completed,  was  intrusted  to 
Bishop  Fox.  The  king's  own  printer  put  the  manuscript 
to  press.  Just  what  part  Henry  himself  had  in  it  all  is  con- 
jectural. He  seems  to  have  given  the  document  a  hasty 
examination  and  the  royal  license.  It  was  never  submitted 
to  Parliament. 

The  Bishops'  Book  (1537)  was  intended  to  be  a  manual 
of  faith  for  private  and  public  use,  and  to  take  the  place  of 
the  Ten  Articles  which  had  been  published  the  year  before, 


112  Doctrinal  Formularies  of  Henry  VIII 

and  which  had  utterly  failed  to  quiet  religious  agitation. 
The  book  was  more  practical  than  doctrinal  in  its  nature, 
and  was  designed  to  explain  the  leading  articles  of  religion. 
It  contained  expositions  of:  (i)  the  Apostles'  Creed; 
(2)  the  Ten  Commandments;  (3)  the  Lord's  Prayer; 
(4)  the  seven  sacraments  (in  the  Ten  Articles  only  three 
sacraments  were  mentioned)  ;  (5)  the  doctrine  of  justifica- 
tion; (6)  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  (the  statements  respect- 
ing justification  and  purgatory  were  taken  bodily  from  the 
Ten  Articles).  There  was  a  chapter  devoted  specially  to 
clerical  orders  in  which  it  was  distinctly  taught  that  in  the 
New  Testament  there  are  only  two  orders — bishops  and 
deacons.  Bishops  and  priests  are  the  same  order.  In  those 
days  the  divine  right  of  episcopacy,  apostolic  succession,  etc., 
were  not  recognized.  The  Church  of  England  got  most  of 
its  peculiar  and  characteristic  notions  from  the  age  of 
Elizabeth  and  later. 

As  the  Ten  Articles  failed  to  quiet  contentions,  so, 
in  turn,  The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man  or  The 
Bishops'  Book,  though  signed  by  all  the  episcopal  digni- 
taries, represented  the  views  of  neither  reformers  nor 
Romanists,  and  signally  failed  in  bringing  about  unity  of 
view  and  harmony  of  feeling. 

III.       THE  THIRTEEN  ARTICLES 

In  the  year  1538,  we  reach  the  culmination  of  the  move- 
ment of  Henry  VIII  away  from  Rome.  In  the  early  months 
of  that  year  he  is  in  friendly  negotiations  with  the  German 
theologians;  but  before  the  year  ends  he  has  resolved  to 
stamp  out  all  Lutheran  heresies.  The  history  of  the  Thir- 
teen Articles  will  reveal  this  revolution  in  the  king's  mind. 
In  Germany  the  leading  reformers  were  indulging  the  hope 
that  Henry  could  be  brought  over  to  Protestantism.     To 


Rome  Insulted  by  Doctrine  and  Deed  113 

pave  the  way,  Luther  was  induced  to  retract  the  frightfully 
abusive  epithets  he  had  used  against  the  English  sovereign 
after  the  publication  of  Henry's  Defense  of  the  Seven  Sacra- 
ments. The  prospect  seemed  especially  bright,  when,  in  May, 
1538,  by  invitation  of  Cranmer,  a  deputation  of  German 
divines  came  over  to  England  to  talk  matters  over,  and  to 
formulate  articles  of  agreement  and  reformation.  Cranmer 
entertained  the  delegates  at  Lambeth.  Their  conferences 
soon  resulted  in  a  creed  drawn  up  in  Latin  under  thirteen 
heads.  The  document,  based  on  the  Augsburg  Confession, 
expressed  the  Lutheran  teaching  on  (i)  the  divine  unity 
and  trinity;  (2)  original  sin;  (3)  the  two  natures  of  Christ; 
(4)  justification;  (5)  the  church;  (6)  baptism  and  the 
Eucharist;  (7)  penitence;  (8)  the  use  of  sacraments; 
(9)  the  ministers  of  the  church;  (10)  ecclesiastical  rites; 
(11)  civil  affairs;  (12)  the  resurrection,  and  (13)  final 
judgment — thirteen  articles  in  all. 

This  deputation  from  Germany  arrived  in  May.  At  the 
very  time  they  were  putting  their  doctrinal  formulas  against 
Rome  into  shape,  the  king  himself  was  committing  an  out- 
rage against  Rome  which  resulted  in  his  excommunication 
and  deposition.  The  tomb  of  Thomas  a  Becket  was  in  Can- 
terbury Cathedral.  It  was  the  most  sacred  shrine  in  all 
England.  For  generations  it  had  been  the  object  of  highest 
veneration.  Millions  of  pilgrims  had  there  paid  their  devo- 
tions. Countless  miracles  had  attested  the  sanctity  and 
power  of  Becket's  remains.  Fabulous  stories  of  treasures 
had  accumulated — the  tokens  of  gratitude  and  reverence  of 
pious  devotees.  Henry's  all-controlling  ambition  was  to 
establish  his  own  supremacy.  He  was  perfectly  familiar 
with  the  history  of  Thomas  a  Becket.  That  history  proved 
that  Saint  Thomas  was  the  worst  enemy  of  royal  supremacy 
that  England  ever  had.    The  king  remembered  how  Henry 


114  Doctrinal  Formularies  of  Henry  VIII 

II  had  taken  him  out  of  penury  and  loaded  him  with  riches 
and  honors,  had  made  him  a  boon  companion  and  filled  his 
life  with  pleasures,  had  given  him  the  highest  places  of  dis- 
tinction, at  last  calling  the  church  to  his  aid  and  making  him 
primate  of  all  England.  The  king  remembered  how  this 
archbishop  in  basest  ingratitude  had  turned  against  his  royal 
benefactor  and  had  tried  to  destroy  him.  The  king  remem- 
bered how  assassins  murdered  the  perfidious  Becket,  how 
Henry  II  was  held  responsible,  how  the  Pope  outraged  the 
proud  monarch  by  making  him  crawl  on  his  hands  and  knees 
to  the  tomb  of  the  murdered  saint,  making  him  lie  naked  on 
the  stone  flagging  of  the  cathedral  floor  while  the  pitiless 
monks  tore  the  flesh  from  his  back  with  loaded  whips.  All 
this,  because  a  king  insisted  on  his  kingly  rights,  which  an 
impudent  priest  disputed.  Henry  VIII  determined  to  call 
this  saintly  scoundrel  to  his  just  deserts.  To  be  sure  he  had 
been  dead  now  more  than  350  years  (1170),  but  His 
Majesty  determined  to  bring  His  Saintship  down  from  his 
high  pedestal,  and  to  mete  out  to  him  the  punishment  he  so 
richly  deserved.  To  this  end  he  caused  a  regular  process  to 
be  issued  against  him  in  the  civil  courts.  By  the  command 
of  the  "Defender  of  the  Faith"  a  citation  was  served  at  the 
tomb  of  Becket,  calling  on  his  spirit  "to  appear  in  court 
within  thirty  days  to  answer  to  the  charges  of  treason,  con- 
tumacy, and  rebellion."  The  story  is  told  in  its  details  in 
Froude's  Life  of  Becket,  in  Stanley's  Memorials  of  Canter- 
bury, in  Freeman's  Historical  Essays,  in  Tennyson's  drama, 
which  Irving  has  acted  on  the  Chicago  stage,  and  in  the 
English  histories  generally.  Dr.  Schaff,  in  one  of  his  latest 
essays,  after  stating  that  the  spirit  of  Becket  was  duly  cited 
to  appear  in  the  court,  goes  on  to  say : 

As  the  saint  did  not  appear  in  person,  his  case  was  formally  argued 
at  Westminster  by  the  attorney-general  on  the  part  of  Henry  VIII, 


St.  Thomas  h  Becket  Degraded  115 

and  by  the  advocate  on  the  part  of  the  accused.  His  guilt  was  proved, 
and  on  the  loth  of  June,  1538,  St.  Thomas  was  condemned  as  a  "rebel 
and  a  traitor  to  his  prince;"  his  bones  to  be  publicly  burned  and  the 
ashes  scattered  in  the  air.  The  rich  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  was  pil- 
laged; the  gold  and  jewels  were  carried  off  in  two  strong  coffers,  on 
the  shoulders  of  seven  or  eight  men;  for  the  removal  of  the  rest  of 
the  spoils,  twenty-six  carts  were  employed.  The  jewels  went  into  the 
hands  of  Henry  VHI,  who  wore  the  most  precious  diamond,  the 
"regale  of  France,"  in  the  ring  of  his  thumb;  afterwards  it  glittered 
in  the  golden  collar  of  his  daughter,  the  bigoted  Queen  Mary.  A 
royal  proclamation  of  November  i6th,  1538,  explained  the  cause  and 
mode  of  Becket's  death,  and  gave  the  reasons  of  his  degradation.  All 
festivals,  offices,  and  prayers  in  his  name  were  forbidden.  The  royal 
order  was  rigidly  executed.  Every  statue  and  picture  of  St.  Thomas 
was  destroyed,  and  his  name  erased  from  the  calendar,  the  missals, 
and  other  documents.  The  site  of  his  shrine  has  remained  vacant 
to  this  day. 

In  this  very  month  in  which  the  Westminster  Council 
expunged  the  name  of  Becket  from  the  Calendar  of  Saints, 
the  king  issued  to  the  clergy  of  the  realm  a  set  of  "Royal 
Injunctions"  which,  in  their  spirit  and  letter,  were  all  that 
the  most  advanced  reformers  could  desire.  Among  Henry's 
requirements  were  the  following:  (i)  The  clergy  must 
conduct  the  public  service  in  English,  and  every  Sunday, 
two  or  three  times  over,  repeat  in  English  and  explain  the 
Pater  Noster,  the  Creed,  and  the  Ten  Commandments. 
(2)  When  they  hear  confessions  they  must  examine  the 
people  on  their  knowledge  of  these  formularies.  (3)  At 
least  once  a  quarter,  they  must  preach  a  sermon  in  which 
they  declare,  purely  and  sincerely,  the  very  gospel  of  Christ, 
and  in  which  they  exhort  their  hearers  to  shun  man's  fan- 
tasies, such  as  going  on  pilgrimages,  offering  money  or 
candles  to  images,  kissing  or  licking  relics,  etc.,  such  things 
having  no  countenance  in  Scripture,  but  tending  rather  to 
idolatry  and  superstition,  which  offenses  God  Almighty  doth 


ii6  Doctrinal  Formularies  of  Henry  VIII 

both  detest  and  abhor.  (4)  The  clergy  must  utterly  remove 
such  images  as  have  been  abused  by  pilgrimages  or  offer- 
ings or  lighted  tapers — such  images  not  helping  piety,  but 
fostering  idolatry,  (5)  By  far  the  most  important  of  these 
injunctions  was  that  respecting  the  Scriptures.  This  injunc- 
tion required  the  clergy,  within  a  given  date, 
to  provide  one  book  of  the  whole  Bible  of  the  largest  volume  in  Eng- 
lish, and  the  same  set  up  in  some  convenient  place  within  your  church, 
whereat  your  parishioners  may  most  commodiously  resort  to  the  same 
and  read  it;  that  ye  discourage  no  man  privily  or  apertly  from  the 
reading  of  the  same  Bible,  but  shall  expressly  provoke,  stir,  and  exhort 
every  person  to  read  the  same  as  that  which  is  the  very  lively  Word 
of  God,  that  every  Christian  man  is  bound  to  embrace,  believe,  and 
follow,  if  he  look  to  be  saved. 

Here,  then,  are  three  events,  all  occurring  in  1538,  which 
betoken,  with  emphasis,  the  immediate  triumph  of  the 
Protestant  cause:  (i)  The  presence  of  German  divines  in 
London  in  May  to  join  the  English  divines  in  formulating 
articles  of  faith.  (2)  The  utter  destruction,  in  June,  of  the 
shrine  of  Thomas  a  Becket,  the  head-center  of  popish  super- 
stition and  idolatry  in  England.  (3)  The  issuing  in  Septem- 
ber of  "Royal  Injunctions"  providing  for  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
the  Creed,  and  the  Ten  Commandments  in  English,  the  sin- 
cere preaching  of  the  very  gospel  of  Christ,  the  extinction 
of  image-  and  relic-worship,  and  the  placing  of  an  English 
Bible  in  every  parish  church,  free  and  open  to  all  the  people. 

But  for  some  reason,  in  this  very  year,  1538,  the  Refor- 
mation suffered  a  sudden  reverse  and  defeat.  The  substance 
of  the  Thirteen  Articles  was  incorporated  in  the  Forty-two 
Articles  formulated  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  but  they 
gained  no  recognition  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  The 
treasures  rifled  from  the  tomb  of  Becket  were  never 
restored,  but  the  "Royal  Injunctions"  became  a  dead  letter; 
the  English  Bible  was  proscribed;  and  the  superstitions  and 


Why  Henry  Opposed  the  Reformation  117 

idolatry  of  popery  were  reinstated.  From  the  close  of  1538 
until  his  death  in  1547,  King  Henry  sided  with  the  friends 
of  Rome,  and  did  all  in  his  power  to  crush  the  Reformation. 
What  is  the  explanation  of  this  seeming  reversal  of  purpose 
and  policy  ? 

In  the  first  place,  was  it,  after  all,  only  a  secining 
reversal  ?  In  reality,  was  Henry  always  on  the  Romish  side, 
never  intending  for  an  instant  that  the  reformers  should  gain 
the  victory?  If  we  take  this  view,  we  must  reason  that,  on 
the  question  of  his  own  supremacy,  and  the  constitutional 
innovations  which  had  been  necessitated  by  the  transfer  of 
the  ecclesiastical  headship,  the  king  stood  as  firm  as  Gib- 
raltar. But  his  very  desire  and  purpose  to  maintain  this 
ground  at  all  hazards  disinclined  him  to  countenance  any- 
thing which  might  be  looked  upon  as  doctrinally  heretical. 
When,  in  1536,  he  needed  the  help  of  the  Protestants  against 
the  Emperor  and  the  Pope,  he  was  in  a  mood  for  the  Ten 
Articles;  but  now,  in  1538-39,  both  home  and  foreign 
politics  seemed  to  require  a  disavowal  of  Protestant  lean- 
ings. He  could  best  hold  his  own  in  the  matter  of 
supremacy,  by  removing  all  suspicion  of  heresy.  From  first 
to  last  he  never  intended  to  be  a  heretic ;  but  he  played  with 
heretics,  and  favored  or  repressed  them  as  his  interests 
seemed  to  dictate. 

In  the  second  place,  what  influence  had  the  Pope's 
bull  of  excommunication  and  deposition  on  the  mind  of  the 
English  sovereign?  In  1535  the  Roman  pontiff  had  drawn 
up  such  a  bull,  but  the  king  of  France  persuaded  him  not  to 
fulminate  it.  When,  however,  in  1538,  the  English  king, 
prompted  by  the  devil,  dared  to  despoil  the  tomb  of  St. 
Thomas,  the  most  horrid  crime  against  God  and  religion  in 
English  history,  the  Pope  could  no  longer  restrain  his  wrath, 
and  he  let  the  bolt  from  heaven  fall.     Did  this  move  the 


ii8  Doctrinal  Formularies  oj  Henry  VIII 

superstitious  fears  of  Henry?  Or,  if  it  did  not  frighten 
him,  did  it  make  him  cautious  ?  As  a  consummate  politician, 
did  he  begin  to  reason  that  his  own  security  lay  in  un- 
doubted, unquestioned  orthodoxy?  Did  he  argue  that,  in 
the  face  of  the  divorce  from  Catherine,  the  Act  of  Suprem- 
acy, the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  the  spoiling  of 
Becket's  tomb,  the  circulation  of  an  open  Bible,  he  must 
prove  to  all  the  world  that  he  was  no  heretic — as  stout  a 
Catholic  as  ever  breathed.  No  warmest  devotee  of  Rome 
can  ever  surpass  the  king  himself  in  absolute  allegiance  to 
the  beliefs  and  practices  of  Holy  Mother  Church.  In  view 
of  the  Pope's  bull,  and  the  irritation  of  foreign  princes,  and 
the  suppressed  enmity  of  the  English  clergy,  and  the 
ominous  murmurings  of  the  superstitious  peasantry,  he 
could  best  conserve  all  that  had  thus  far  been  gained,  and 
make  more  sure  and  lasting  his  own  place  and  power — 
fortify  himself  and  disarm  his  foes — by  showing  to  all  the 
world  that  the  Pope  himself  was  not  a  more  thoroughgoing 
and  whole-souled  Catholic,  than  good  King  Henry,  who  sat 
on  the  English  throne.  It  is  really  doubtful  whether  Paul 
Ill's  Bull  of  Deposition,  which  indeed  existed,  was  ever 
issued.  Burnet  quotes  it,  yet  not  from  the  Records,  but 
from  a  Roman  Bullarium. 

In  the  third  place,  the  German  divines  who  were  in 
London  by  the  invitation  of  Cranmer,  and  who  helped  to 
frame  the  Thirteen  Articles  on  the  basis  of  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  were  too  confident  of  victory,  and  by  their  too 
radical  advance  and  overhasty  zeal  defeated  the  very  cause 
they  had  at  heart.  If  they  could  have  been  content  to  win 
the  field  gradually,  they  might  have  possessed  all  in  time; 
but,  determined  to  have  all  at  once,  they  lost  all  by  the 
unlucky  hazard.  Possibly  the  king  would  have  sanctioned 
and  proclaimed  the  Thirteen  Articles,  but  when  the  Lutheran 


Henry's  Romanizing  Policy  119 

theologians  ventured  further,  and  drew  up  a  communication 
for  the  king  demanding  the  removal  of  three  abuses,  viz. : 
(i)  communion  in  one  kind;  (2)  private  masses,  and  (3) 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  they  gave  the  king  an  affront  from 
which  he  never  recovered;  for  precisely  these  three  he 
cherished  and  upheld  with  a  fixed  determination.  Jenkins, 
in  his  Life  of  Craniner,  declares  that  this  indiscreet  for- 
wardness of  the  German  deputies  was 

one  of  the  heaviest  blows  sustained  by  the  English  Reformation  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  It  both  removed  the  salutary  restraint 
hitherto  imposed  on  the  King's  caprices  by  an  unwillingness  to  break 
with  those  who  were  embarked  in  the  same  cause,  and  it  also  enlisted 
his  personal  feeling  on  the  side  of  the  tenets  he  had  so  zealously 
pledged  himself  to  defend. 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  Henry  began 
forthwith  to  insist  upon  the  strict  observance  of  those  very 
abuses  the  Germans  wished  removed.  On  no  account  would 
he  permit  communion  in  both  kinds,  nor  would  he  permit 
any  priest  to  hold  his  living  who  had  ventured  to  marry.  Vio- 
lation of  these  requirements  subjected  the  offender  to  depo- 
sition, confiscation,  imprisonment,  and  burning.  English 
reformers,  who  on  the  Continent  had  learned  from  Zwingli 
the  true  nature  of  the  Lord's  Supper  as  made  known  in  the 
New  Testament,  were  arrested,  tried,  convicted,  and  burned 
at  the  stake.  The  "Royal  Injunctions,"  which  were  issued 
in  September,  had  become  a  dead  letter  in  less  than  half  a 
year,  and  before  the  beginning  of  1539  Henry  was  fully 
committed  to  his  Romanizing  policy.  Whatever  his  reasons 
for  this  change  of  front,  the  change  was  already  an  estab- 
lished fact. 

IV.       THE  SIX   ARTICLES 

All  this  is  clearly  revealed  in  the  Six  Articles  to  which 
we  now  turn  our  attention.     Parliament  met  late  in  April, 


I20  Doctrinal  Formularies  of  Henry  VIII 

1539.  Henry  sent  a  message  to  the  House  of  Lords  declar- 
ing his  desire  that  all  Englishmen  should  have  one  religious 
belief,  and  so  bring  to  an  end  the  controversies  which  were 
distracting  the  nation.  He  required  the  house  to  appoint  a 
committee  to  take  the  whole  matter  under  advisement.  To 
this  committee  Henry  submitted  six  questions  which  they 
were  to  answer  under  the  form  of  articles:  (i)  Whether 
in  the  Eucharist  Christ's  real  body  was  present,  without 
transubstantiation  ?  (2)  Whether  the  sacrament  was  to  be 
given  to  the  laity  in  both  kinds?  (3)  Whether  by  the  law 
of  God  the  vow  of  chastity  made  by  either  man  or  woman 
ought  to  be  observed?  (4)  Whether  by  the  law  of  God 
private  masses  ought  to  be  celebrated?  (5)  Whether  by 
the  law  of  God  priests  might  marry?  (6)  Whether  by  the 
law  of  God  auricular  confession  was  necessary? 

On  these  questions  the  committee  was  hopelessly 
divided,  being  made  up  of  pronounced  Romanists  and 
Protestants.  After  wrangling  for  eleven  days  it  was  re- 
ported to  Parliament  that  the  committee  could  come  to  no 
agreement.  Thereupon,  Parliament  itself  discussed  the  six 
points  for  four  days  with  no  better  result.  Finally  it  was 
arranged  that  each  party,  one  headed  by  Archbishop 
Cranmer  and  the  other  by  Archbishop  Lee,  should  draft  a 
bill.  This  was  accordingly  done,  but  Parliament  could  not 
bring  itself  to  accept  either ;  and  so  the  matter  was  referred 
back  to  Henry  for  his  decision.  The  two  religious  schemes 
are  in  his  hands.  As  in  1536,  he  sees  the  bishops  arrayed 
against  each  other  in  irreconcilable  antagonism.  The  side 
he  will  take  scarcely  admits  of  doubt.  The  reformers  have 
lost  their  foremost  champion  in  the  recent  death  of  Bishop 
Fox,  who  always  wielded  an  immense  influence  over  the 
king;  and,  besides,  Henry  has  of  late  given  unmistakable 
signs  of  his  purpose  to  destroy  the  Reformation.    The  two 


Rome's  Triumph  in  the  Six  Articles  121 

bills  are  in  his  hand.  If  he  recommends  the  reform  bill  it 
will  mean  still  further  innovations,  great  ferment  in  the 
land,  an  alliance  with  the  Protestants.  If  he  recommends 
the  Catholic  bill  it  will  mean  a  check  in  religious  innova- 
tions at  this  stage,  a  confirming  of  all  the  advantages  thus 
far  gained  by  the  crown,  a  quieting  down  of  a  majority  of 
the  people  who  still  cling  fondly  to  their  old  beliefs  and  love 
their  old  customs.  It  will  mean  continued  peace  and  friend- 
ship with  the  Emperor.  Personal  preference  and  public 
interest  at  home  and  abroad  favor  the  Catholic  bill.  And 
so  the  balance  dipped  toward  Rome,  and  so  the  Six  Articles 
became  law — the  bloody  articles,  the  whip  with  six  strings, 
the  scorpion  with  six  tails.  They  enforced  belief  in :  ( i ) 
the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation ;  (2)  communion  in  both 
kinds  not  necessary;  (3)  the  sinfulness  of  marriage  after 
becoming  a  priest  or  nun;  (4)  the  absolute  obligation  of 
vows  of  chastity;  (5)  the  scripturalness  and  efficacy  of 
private  masses;  and  (6)  the  necessity  of  auricular  con- 
fessions. 

The  first  of  these  articles,  which  was  the  most  horrible 
of  all,  reads  as  follows :  "In  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar, 
after  the  consecration  there  remains  no  substance  of  bread 
and  wine,  but  under  these  forms  the  body  and  blood  of 
Christ  are  present."  Those  guilty  of  speaking,  preaching, 
or  writing  against  this  article  were  to  be  adjudged  heretics, 
forfeit  their  real  and  personal  property  to  the  king,  and  be 
burned  without  adjuration.  To  offend  against  the  other 
articles  would  involve  loss  of  goods  and  imprisonment.  To 
offend  the  second  time  would  bring  the  death  of  a  felon.  A 
married  priest  must  dissolve  the  union.  Marrying  again, 
he  became  the  hangman's  victim. 

Romanism  was  completely  triumphant.  The  German 
ambassadors  who  had  come  over  to  see  the  Protestant 


122  Doctrinal  Formularies  of  Henry  VIII 

religion  legalized  went  home  vanquished.  They  did  not 
lose  all  hope,  however.  They  thought  the  Six  Articles 
would  not  be  enforced,  for  Henry's  marriage  with  a  Ger- 
man Protestant  (Anne  of  Cleves)  was  just  then  being 
arranged.  But  the  articles  were  enforced.  Without  due 
legal  process,  the  bloody  sentence  hung  over  innocent  and 
guilty  alike.  Latimer  and  Saxton  were  put  into  custody. 
Robert  Barnes,  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments  of  Oxford, 
was  burned  at  the  stake.  Fifteen  names  have  come  down 
to  us  of  persons  who  suffered  in  London.  Burnet  tells  us 
of  five  hundred  victims  who  crowded  the  London  jails. 
Cranmer  expected  to  fall  before  the  fury  of  his  enemies, 
who  tried  hard  to  compass  his  ruin;  but  the  king  assured 
him  of  his  protection,  and  reached  forth  his  hand  and  saved 
him.  After  a  little,  legal  forms  were  supplied  under  which 
the  accused  were  tried,  which  somewhat  mitigated  the 
severity;  and  Cranmer's  personal  influence  with  Henry 
saved  many. 

V.       THE  NECESSARY  DOCTRINE  AND  ERUDITION  OF  ANY 
CHRISTIAN   MAN 

The  fifth  formulary,  set  forth  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
Vni,  was  The  Necessary  Doctrine  and  Erudition  of  Any 
Christian  Man,  approved  by  the  convocation  in  1543.  It  is 
the  recasting  of  The  Institution  of  a  Christian  Man,  pub- 
lished in  1537,  with  such  corrections  and  enlargements  as 
shall  strengthen  the  king's  supremacy,  the  doctrine  of  tran- 
substantiation,  and  other  Romish  views  of  the  church  and  its 
sacraments.  Henry  himself  wrote  the  preface,  and  sent 
the  document  on  its  mission. 

In  conclusion,  we  will  tarry  only  to  remark  that  the 
history  of  these  five  formularies  makes  it  apparent  that 
Henry's  plan  was  to   separate   England   from  the   papal 


A  Radical  Reformation  Not  Wanted  123 

hierarchical  system,  without  taking  a  step  further  than  was 
absolutely  necessary;  and  that  this  plan  was  probably  in 
accord  with  the  wishes  of  a  majority  of  his  people;  i.  e.,  if 
they  must  be  separate  from  Rome,  let  nothing  more  be  done 
in  the  way  of  change  in  doctrine  and  ceremony  than  is  actu- 
ally needful. 


IV 

THE  PROTESTANT  COMPLEXION  OF 
EDWARD'S  REIGN 


IV 

THE  PROTESTANT  COMPLEXION  OF  EDWARD'S 

REIGN 

During  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII  the  Roman  jurisdiction 
in  England  was  aboHshed.  The  king  himself  became  the 
supreme  head  in  the  place  of  the  Italian  pontiff.  This  event 
marks  the  beginning  of  the  present  Church  of  England.  It 
was  a  long  struggle,  chiefly  destructive  and  political,  which 
issued  in  the  new  ecclesiastical  establishment.  Beliefs  and 
ceremonials  were  only  slightly  changed,  but  the  severest 
penalties  compelled  a  recognition  of  the  new  headship. 

It  was  reserved  for  the  next  reign,  that  of  Edward  VI, 
to  establish  the  new  church  in  worship,  polity,  and  doctrine. 
So  thoroughly  was  this  done  that  today  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land is  not  as  far  removed  from  Rome  as  Edward  left  it. 
"Bloody  Mary"  demolished  it.  Elizabeth  restored  it,  but  fell 
far  short  of  Edward's  standard.  The  early  Stuarts  Roman- 
ized it.  Cromwell  and  the  Long  Parliament  demolished  it 
again.  The  later  Stuarts,  Papists  themselves,  did  their 
utmost  to  corrupt  its  doctrine  and  life,  and  to  deliver  it, 
soul  and  body,  to  the  tyrannies  and  cruelty  of  its  popish 
enemies.  With  the  revolution  under  William  and  Mary  it 
regained  its  independence  indeed,  but  neither  then  nor  since, 
the  purity  and  comparative  freedom  from  Romish  traits 
which  characterized  it  in  the  days  of  the  young  king, 
Edward.  In  our  own  day,  starting  with  Newman  and  Pusey, 
the  leaders  of  the  Oxford  Movement,  the  Romeward  trend  is 
very  marked,  and  the  ritualistic,  Romanizing  High-Church 
party  has  actually  become  dominant  in  the  Church  of 
England. 

127 


128  The  Protestantism  of  Edward's  Reign 

In  treating  of  the  strong  Protestant  tendencies  which 
marked  the  brief  reign  of  this  boy  prince,  the  material  can 
be  handled  in  an  orderly  way  by  speaking:  (i)  of  the 
chief  actors;  (2)  of  their  chief  acts;  (3)  of  the  moral 
estimate  to  be  put  upon  both  acts  and  actors. 

I.       THE  CHIEF  ACTORS 

First,  Edward  himself  was  decidedly  Protestant.  His 
mother,  his  uncles,  and  near  relatives  were  Protestants.  His 
education  had  been  intrusted  to  Protestant  divines.  His 
intelligence  and  all  his  sympathies  were  on  the  side  of  the 
reformed  movement.  Throughout  his  career  he  carried 
himself  in  keeping  with  these  sentiments. 

Secondly,  whatever  may  have  been  Henry's  intention, 
the  Council  of  Regents,  who  were  to  reign  during  Edward's 
minority,  soon  fell  into  the  control  of  the  Protestant  mem- 
bers, who  removed  the  leaders  in  the  opposing  faction,  and 
thenceforward  had  things  their  own  way. 

Thirdly,  the  dukes  Somerset  and  Northumberland  were 
the  two  lord  protectors,  chief  men  in  the  council,  the  high- 
est government  officials,  one  after  the  other  holding  the 
destiny  of  the  nation  in  his  hand,  and  both  wholly  committed 
to  the  Protestant  cause. 

Fourthly,  Cranmer,  the  primate,  was  by  far  the  most 
influential  ecclesiastic  in  the  realm.  In  the  fight  with  the 
Pope,  and  in  the  several  divorce  proceedings,  and  from  first 
to  last  he  stood  by  Henry  VIII  through  thick  and  thin.  He 
was  in  nearest  relations  with  the  young  king.  He  was  the 
peer  of  Somerset  in  the  Board  of  Regents.  During  Edward's 
reign  he  did  more  to  shape  the  policy  of  the  church  than  any 
other  living  man.  Often  his  counsel  and  protest  were  over- 
borne, but,  in  the  main,  he  had  his  own  way.  And  Cranmer 
was  the  friend  and  champion  of  the  reformers.   It  was  only 


Reforming  Bishops  and  Clergy  Advanced  129 

by  degrees  that  he  himself  was  reformed,  but  his  departures 
from  the  old  order  of  things  were  of  the  most  radical  sort. 
He  married  a  wife,  he  ate  meat  in  Lent,  and  he  committed 
numberless  other  atrocities  which  scandalized  all  good 
Romanists.  His  mighty  power  was  used  in  reforming 
abuses  in  the  English  church. 

Fifthly,  the  bishops  who  favored  the  Reformation  were 
exalted  to  positions  of  trust  and  influence,  while  those  who 
adhered  to  Rome  were  one  by  one  deprived  of  their  sees 
and  committed  to  prison.  Latimer,  and  Ridley,  and  Hooper, 
and  others  were  given  bishoprics;  while  Gardiner,  who  for 
twenty  years  had  been  Henry's  trusted  servant,  and  since 
Cromwell's  death,  his  chief  adviser,  had  been  by  him  left  off 
the  council,  and  by  the  council  deprived  of  his  see,  and  com- 
mitted first  to  the  Fleet  and  later  to  the  Tower.  Tonstal,  the 
only  bishop  on  the  council,  was  soon  expelled  from  the  board, 
and  followed  Gardiner  to  the  Fleet  and  the  Tower.  Bonner, 
and  Heath  and  Day  likewise  were  expelled  from  their  sees, 
and  all  four  were  lying  in  the  Tower  when  Mary  came  to 
the  throne.  Thus  every  reforming  bishop  pushed  the  Protes- 
tant cause,  while  every  anti-reformer  lost  his  liberty.  From 
the  pulpit  the  voice  of  the  one  could  be  heard ;  the  voice  of 
the  other  was  silenced  in  the  prison  cell. 

Sixthly,  whether  willingly  or  reluctantly,  the  Convoca- 
tion was  subject  to  the  dictation  of  Cranmer  and  the  reform- 
ing bishops  and  clergy,  and  reached  decisions  and  published 
measures  which  were  favorable  to  the  new  religion.  On 
many  questions,  touching  the  worship  and  doctrine  of  the 
church  in  the  most  vital  way,  the  Convocation  was  not  con- 
sulted at  all,  the  civil  authorities  taking  ecclesiastical  legisla- 
tion into  their  own  hands. 

Lastly,  the  parliaments  of  Edward's  reign  were  com- 
posed of  members,  whether  elected  freely  and  legally  or 


130  The  Protestantism  of  Edward's  Reign 

not,  who  were  ready  to  pass  the  laws  which  the  protector 
and  primate  and  council  suggested,  and  were  pliant  and 
obliging  when  reforming  acts  were  under  consideration. 

Thus,  throughout  the  reign  of  Edward,  the  chief  actors 
were  men  pledged  to  the  work  of  reformation.  They  pro- 
posed to  go  far  beyond  anything  Henry  VIII  would  tolerate. 
They  proposed  to  take  lessons  from  the  continental  divines, 
and  to  make  the  English  church  as  truly  reformed  as  the 
German.  They  wished  to  escape  the  tyranny  and  corruption 
of  Rome,  and  to  approach  the  primitive  pattern  of  the 
Christian  church.  Such  in  the  main  were  the  intention  and 
purpose  of  the  young  king  and  his  council,  Somerset  and 
Northumberland,  Cranmer  and  the  bishops.  Convocation 
and  Parliament. 

II.       THEIR  ACTS 

Let  us  now  turn  from  these  reforming  actors  to  some  of 
their  principal  acts.  First  in  order  is  the  Royal  Visitation. 
The  commissioners  sent  into  the  six  circuits  were  men  of 
pronounced  views,  and  the  divines  who  accompanied  them 
were  of  the  Ridley  type  (Ridley  was  one  of  them),  who 
had  been  carefully  selected  to  preach  up  the  Reformation 
and  to  wean  the  people  from  their  old  superstitions. 

Secondly,  the  Book  of  Homilies,  which  the  commission- 
ers everywhere  distributed,  consisted  of  twelve  discourses, 
prepared  by  Cranmer  and  others,  and  specially  designed  to 
inculcate  the  new  doctrinal  opinions.  They  treated  of  the 
right  use  of  Scripture,  man's  misery  under  sin,  the  atoning 
sacrifice  of  Christ,  the  nature  of  saving  faith,  and  similar 
themes.  A  single  paragraph  from  the  homily  on  "Good 
Works"  will  show  us  how  the  people  were  being  educated 
away  from  their  false  dependencies : 

Briefly,  to  pass  over  the  ungodly  and  counterfeit  religion  of  monks 
and  friars,  let  us  rehearse  some  other  kinds  of  papistical  superstitions 


An fi- Papal  Homilies  and  Injunctions  131 

and  abuses  removed,  as  of  beads,  of  lady-psalters,  and  rosaries,  of  15 
O's  (verses  of  magical  power  beginning  with  O),  of  St.  Bernard's 
verses,  of  St.  Agatha's  letters  (golden  letters  from  the  Virgin,  warn- 
ing Frederick  II  to  protect  Agatha),  of  purgatory,  of  masses  satis- 
factory, of  stations  and  jubilees,  of  feigned  relics,  of  hallowed  beads, 
bells,  bread,  water,  palms,  candles,  fire,  and  such  other;  of  super- 
stitious fastings,  of  fraternities,  of  brotherhoods,  of  pardons,  and 
such  like  merchandise,  etc. 

The  homilies  taught  the  people  what  faith  and  love  and 
obedience  and  genuine  religion  really  were  in  contrast  with 
these  papistical  follies  and  deceptions. 

Thirdly,  the  Thirty-six  Injunctions  were  decidedly 
Protestant  in  their  tenor  and  spirit.  The  continental  reform- 
ers could  scarcely  have  asked  for  more.  They  were 
thoroughgoing  in  their  nature.  They  were  designed  to  reach 
every  priest  in  the  realm.  The  royal  commissioners  paid  a 
visit  to  every  bishop,  and  administered  to  him  and  the  mem- 
bers of  his  cathedral  an  oath  to  renounce  the  Pope  and  to 
uphold  the  king.  Then  copies  of  the  Book  of  Homilies  and 
the  "Injunctions"  were  given  to  the  bishop  to  be  distributed 
to  all  the  clergy  of  his  diocese.  As  he  valued  his  peace  of 
mind  and  personal  safety  he  must  fulfil  his  duty  in  this 
regard.  Among  other  things,  these  "Injunctions"  say  to  him 
and  to  his  clergy:  Renounce  the  Pope  bitterly;  accept  the 
king's  supremacy  heartily;  never  again  extol  any  image  or 
relic  for  lucre's  sake ;  nor  ever  again  allure  the  people  to  pil- 
grimages to  shrines  of  noted  saints;  teach  them  that  good- 
ness, health,  and  grace  are  to  be  sought  from  God  alone.  At 
least  once  in  three  months  go  into  your  pulpit  and  preach  a 
sermon — a  genuine  sermon  drawn  from  the  Word  of  God. 
Show  the  people  that  faith,  mercy,  and  charity  are  the  duties 
prescribed  by  Scripture,  and  that  running  off  on  pilgrimages 
and  offering  money  and  candles  to  relics  and  images,  or 
kissing  or  licking  them,  are  contrary  to  Scripture,  and  tend 


132  The  Protestantism  of  Edward'' s  Reign 

only  to  idolatry,  which  God  abhors.  These  images,  which 
the  people  have  thus  abused,  you  are  to  destroy,  and  never 
again  permit  this  superstitious  use  before  them  of  torches 
and  tapers.  Forego  this  employment  of  Latin,  and  hence- 
forth conduct  the  public  worship  of  God  in  English.  Recite 
plainly  and  openly  from  the  pulpit  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the 
Creed,  and  the  Ten  Commandments  in  English,  "to  the 
intent  that  the  people  may  learn  the  same  by  heart."  Within 
three  months  procure  a  copy  of  the  whole  Bible  of  the  largest 
volume  in  English  and  set  it  up  in  every  church.  Discourage 
no  man  from  reading  any  part  of  it,  but  rather  "comfort 
and  exhort  every  person  to  read  it."  Hitherto  the  mystic, 
allegorical,  scholastic,  traditional  interpretation  has  hid  the 
true  meaning  of  Holy  Scripture.  Hereafter,  that  everyone 
may  have  the  plain,  literal,  honest  meaning  of  the  Sacred 
Writings,  cause  to  be  set  up  in  every  church  a  copy  of 
Erasmus'  Paraphrase  of  the  New  Testament,  in  English.  At 
every  public  service  read  in  English  from  the  epistles  and 
gospels,  and  likewise  two  lessons,  one  from  the  Old  and  the 
other  from  the  New  Testament.  By  these  public  readings, 
make  the  people  familiar  with  the  English  Bible.  Every 
priest  must  for  himself,  within  three  months,  buy  a  Latin 
and  English  Testament  and  a  copy  of  Erasmus'  Paraphrase. 
See  that  the  sacraments  are  becomingly  and  reverently  ad- 
ministered. Give  no  parishioner  the  privilege  of  the  sacra- 
ments who  cannot  recite  the  Articles  of  Faith,  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  the  Ten  Commandments  in  English.  Exhort 
all  parents  and  housholders  to  teach  these  necessary  things 
to  their  families,  as  likewise  to  set  their  children  and  servants 
"either  to  learning,  or  to  some  honest  exercise,  occupation, 
or  industry."  See  to  it  that  the  priests  while  reform- 
ing others  reform  themselves.  They  must  quit  frequenting 
taverns  and  alehouses,  quit  playing  dice  and  cards,  quit 


Injunctions  Against  Catholic  Abuses  133 

drinking,  rioting,  and  gambling.  They  must  quit  defraud- 
ing their  parishioners  by  commuting  penances  and  charging 
excessive  sums  for  rehgious  services.  If  their  benefice 
amounts  to  twenty  pounds  a  year,  they  must  give  ten  shil- 
Hngs  a  year  to  the  poor;  if  it  amounts  to  one  hundred  pounds 
a  year  they  must  support  a  student  at  the  University.  They 
must  set  up  a  poor-box  in  every  church  and  soHcit  contribu- 
tions, and  urge  the  rich  in  making  their  wills  to  remember 
the  poor,  and  not  waste  their  money  on  pardons  and  candles 
and  images.  If  the  poor-box  receives  more  money  than  is 
needed,  the  surplus  can  be  used  for  mending  the  roads  and 
repairing  the  church.  Chantry  priests  must  be  diligent  "in 
teaching  youth  to  read  and  write,  and  bring  them  up  in  good 
manners  and  other  virtuous  exercises."  In  every  church  a 
careful  and  accurate  register  must  be  kept  of  all  baptisms, 
marriages,  and  burials.  Processions  about  the  church  and 
through  the  churchyard,  and  the  ringing  of  bells  during 
public  service,  are  to  be  no  longer  tolerated;  and  from  the 
pulpit  the  people  must  be  taught  the  folly  and  sin  of  the 
superstitious  practices  to  which  they  have  been  addicted. 

Many  of  the  "Injunctions"  were  identical  with  those 
issued  by  Henry  VIII,  and  all  were  designed  to  correct  the 
vices  of  the  priests,  to  wean  the  people  away  from  super- 
stition, to  give  the  English  Bible  its  legitimate  place,  and 
to  foster  morality  and  practical  religion. 

It  was  high  time  the  "Injunctions"  were  issued  and  the 
Word  of  God  set  up  in  the  parish  churches,  if  the  stories 
concerning  the  ignorance  of  the  priests  and  their  crude  and 
confused  knowledge  concerning  the  Scriptures  are  to  be 
credited.  Let  me  mention  only  one.  The  vicar  of  Trump- 
ington  was  reading  in  public  service  the  passage  in  which 
occur  the  words  "Eli,  Eli,  lama  sabacthani."  Ending  the 
sentence,  he  stopped,  and  calling  the  church  wardens,  said, 


134  The  Protestantism  of  Edivard's  Reign 

"Neighbors,  this  gear  must  be  amended.  Here  is  Eli  (or 
Ely)  twice  in  this  book.  I  assure  you  if  my  lord  of  Ely 
come  this  way  and  see  it,  he  will  have  the  book  (since  his 
name  is  in  it).  Therefore,  by  mine  advice  we  shall  scrape 
it  out,  and  put  in  our  own  town's  name,  viz.,  "Trumpington, 
Trumpington,  lama  sabacthani."  They  consented,  and  he 
did  so. 

Fourthly,  the  first  act  of  Edward's  first  parliament 
required  that  the  sacraments  of  the  body  and  blood  of  the 
Savior  should  be  received  by  the  laity  in  both  kinds.  This 
was  an  act  which  would  tend  to  undermine  the  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation,  which,  in  turn,  is  the  very  heart  of  the 
Romish  system. 

Fifthly,  an  early  statute  of  this  same  parliament  re- 
pealed the  heresy  and  treason  acts  of  Henry's  reign,  thus 
sweeping  away  the  "Six  Articles"  and  all  the  terrors  of  that 
bloody  legislation,  and  thus  leaving  Englishmen  free  to 
think,  speak,  and  write  against  the  errors  and  abuses  of  the 
papacy,  and  to  formulate  their  new  religious  ideas  without 
peril  of  the  inquisition  and  the  stake. 

Sixthly,  there  soon  followed  the  New  Order  of  Com- 
munion, drawn  by  Cranmer  from  the  old  Latin  Missal  and 
other  sources.  It  was  in  two  parts.  In  the  Latin  part  the 
old  Missal  was  left  intact.  After  the  priest  had  partaken, 
there  followed  a  second  part  in  English,  providing  the  forms 
for  the  communion  of  the  laity  in  both  kinds.  This 
English  part  was  taken  largely  from  the  "Consultation"  of 
Hermann,  the  archbishop  of  Cologne.  This  "Consul- 
tation" was  the  work  of  Bucer  and  Melancthon,  who  in 
turn  borrowed  largely  from  Luther's  Nuremberg  services. 
Cranmer  composed  and  arranged  his  Order  of  Communion 
with  such  care  and  skill  that,  almost  as  he  left  it,  it  remains 
to  this  day  in  the  liturgy  of  the  Established  Church  in 


Origin  oj  Prayer-Books  135 

England  and  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church  in  America. 
Members  of  "the  church,"  when  they  commune,  make  use  of 
forms  which  Cranmer  was  wise  enough  to  select  from  the 
service-books  of  the  German  Lutherans. 

Seventhly,  the  new  Protestant  form  which  the  Church 
of  England  was  assuming  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI  is 
most  clearly  seen  in  the  books  of  common  prayer  and  in  the 
Forty-two  Articles.  The  first  and  second  Prayer-Books 
have  much  in  common,  but  the  second  book  is  in  all  respects 
a  very  great  advance  in  Protestant  and  reforming  senti- 
ments, as  compared  with  the  first.  In  the  second  book 
additions  and  alterations  are  made  which  carry  the  English 
church  farther  from  popish  errors,  and  into  closer  fellow- 
ship with  the  Protestant  churches  on  the  Continent.  This 
was  undoubtedly  owing  to  the  influence  of  the  foreign 
divines.  Cranmer  was  the  chief  maker  of  the  Prayer-Books 
and  Articles,  and  the  theologians  from  abroad  were  the  chief 
makers  of  Cranmer.  In  scores  of  instances  we  can  trace 
his  enlightenment  and  advance  to  their  teaching  and  guid- 
ance. Note  a  single  example.  When  he  became  archbishop 
he  was  a  thoroughgoing  Papist  in  his  view  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  He  held  the  dogma  of  transubstantiation,  and 
joyfully  consented  to  the  burning  of  John  Frith,  who 
denied  that  doctrine.  In  1538  he  had  reached  the  Lutheran 
conception  of  the  sacrament.  He  held  the  dogma  of  con- 
substantiation,  and  joyfully  assisted  in  the  condemnation  of 
Lambert,  who  had  embraced  the  Zwinglian  teaching.  When 
the  Second  Prayer-Book  appeared,  he  had  dropped  both  the 
Roman  and  Lutheran  conception,  and  now  held  the  view 
of  the  Lord's  spiritual  presence  in  the  Supper.  He  wrote  a 
book.  Defence  of  the  True  and  Catholic  Doctrine.  This 
final  view,  which  he  incorporated  in  the  Book  of  Common 


136  The  Protestantism  of  Edward's  Reign 

Prayer,  he  obtained  from  foreign  teachers  who  had  sat  at 
the  feet  of  that  learned,  godly  man,  Master  John  Calvin. 

Many  Episcopalians  today  are  extremely  sensitive  over 
the  part  which  outsiders  took  in  the  making  of  the  Prayer- 
Book.  They  would  gladly  have  it  appear  an  Anglican 
affair  pure  and  simple.  They  cannot  deny  that  the  foreign- 
ers were  consulted,  and  that  they  freely  expressed  their 
minds,  but  they  maintain  that  after  all  the  English  church- 
men acted  independently,  maturely  weighing  and  judging 
whatever  foreign  elements  they  adopted,  and  that  it  is  alto- 
gether incorrect  to  attribute  the  shape  the  Prayer-Book 
finally  took  to  the  preponderance  of  outside  influence.  These 
modern  Anglicans  declare  their  belief  in  the  historical 
episcopate,  in  the  apostolic  succession,  in  the  sole  validity 
of  episcopal  ordination,  in  bishops  as  the  exclusive  conduits 
of  the  Holy  Ghost.  They  deny  that  they  are  Protestants,  or 
Romish,  or  reformed,  and  they  thank  God  that  Luther  and 
Calvin  had  nothing  to  do  with  their  making.  But  they 
forget  that  the  Prayer-Book  which  they  adore  is  heavily 
in  debt  to  both;  and  that  the  men  who  made  their  English 
liturgy  knew  absolutely  nothing  of  the  exclusive  episcopal 
notions  which  characterize  the  modern  churchman.  Squirm 
as  they  may,  it  still  remains  that  Cranmer  and  the  leaders 
in  the  English  church  welcomed  the  reformers  from  the 
Continent  as  equals  and  teachers,  put  them  into  the  divinity 
chairs  in  the  great  universities,  made  them  superintendents 
of  the  foreign  congregations  which  were  joyfully  received 
and  protected,  invited  them  to  assist  in  making  the  Church 
of  England  a  true  reformed  church,  and  actually  borrowed 
from  the  creeds  and  liturgies  of  their  Lutheran  and  Calvin- 
istic  churches  probably  two-thirds  in  all  of  the  form  and 
language  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  Page  after  page 
of  that  book  is  free  translation  out  of  the  catechism  and  ser- 


Forty-Two  Articles  and  Short  Catechism  137 

mons  of  Martin  Luther,  out  of  the  writings  of  Melancthon 
and  Osiander,  out  of  the  Brandenberg-Nuremberg  services, 
out  of  the  Cologne  Archbishop  Hermann's  Consultations, 
out  of  the  Strasburg  Liturgy  and  the  Liturgy  of  John 
Brentz,  and  out  of  the  books  of  A'Lasco,  Bucer,  and  John 
Calvin.  The  Prayer-Book  is  not  an  original  book  at  all. 
It  is  a  patchwork  out  of  the  old  Romish  missals  and  the 
confessions  and  service-books  of  the  churches  of  Calvin 
and  Luther;  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  it  is  so  strongly 
Protestant  in  its  tone  and  feeling. 

Eighthly,  the  Forty-two  Articles,  the  great  Edwardian 
formulary,  deserve  an  extended  treatment.  We  can  tarry 
only  long  enough  to  say  that  they  were  prepared  by  Cran- 
mer  with  utmost  care ;  that  they  underwent  many  revisions 
at  the  hands  of  the  council,  of  bishops,  of  chaplains,  and  of 
other  learned  men ;  that  they  were  not  as  decidedly  anti-papal 
as  the  Prayer-Book ;  that  some  of  them  were  borrowed  from 
the  Augsburg  Confession;  that  they  were  intentionally 
Augustinian  and  Calvinistic  in  their  theology;  that  they 
were  made  the  articles  of  religion  for  the  Established 
Church  without  being  submitted  to  the  Convocation  or  the 
clergy;  that  they  were  the  same  in  substance  as  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles  which  were  authorized  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  which  today  constitute  the  doctrinal  basis  of 
the  Episcopal  churches  in  England  and  America. 

Ninthly,  of  less  value  was  the  Short  Catechism,  pre- 
pared by  Ponet,  bishop  of  Winchester.  It  was  in  the  form 
of  a  dialogue  between  a  master  and  his  scholar,  and  ex- 
hibited considerable  ability  in  arrangement  and  treatment. 
It  was  much  longer  than  the  Articles;  it  came  before  them 
in  the  printed  books,  and  threw  them  into  the  shade.  A 
royal  mandate  required  the  clergy  to  subscribe  both  cate- 


138  The  Protestantism  of  Edward's  Reign 

chism  and  articles,  and  it  was  hoped  in  this  way  to  secure 
one  "uniform  profession,  doctrine,  and  preaching." 

Tenthly,  the  last  authoritative  publication  in  Edward's 
reign  was  the  Primer,  or  prayer-book  for  private  use.  It 
was  published  a  few  months  before  the  king's  death,  and 
the  time  was  too  short  for  the  manual  to  work  any  decided 
Protestant  effect. 

Under  these  ten  heads  we  have  named  the  most  im- 
portant acts  in  the  reign  of  King  Edward  looking  to  the 
reformation  of  the  English  church.  Scores  and  even  hun- 
dreds of  other  regulations  emanated  from  the  sovereign, 
his  council,  and  the  Parliament  looking  to  the  same  end. 

III.       THE    MORAL    ESTIMATE    TO    BE    PUT    UPON    BOTH    ACTS 

AND  ACTORS 

We  are  now  prepared  to  enter  upon  the  third  division 
of  our  subject,  and  to  ask  what  moral  estimate  is  to  be  put 
upon  these  men  and  their  doings.  We  have  thus  far  studi- 
ously refrained  from  criticism.  We  have  endeavored,  in 
the  first  place,  to  show  that  the  principal  actors  were  pledged 
to  the  cause  of  the  Reformation.  Edward,  Somerset, 
Northumberland,  Cranmer,  Ridley,  Latimer,  Hooper, 
Martyr,  Bucer,  A'Lasco,  the  council,  the  Convocation,  and 
the  Parliament,  all  were  on  the  side  of  reform.  In  the 
second  place,  the  public  and  official  proceedings  and  acts 
of  these  influential  political  and  ecclesiastical  leaders  were 
avowedly  Protestant  in  their  character  and  intention.  The 
welcome  given  to  foreign  reformers  and  the  protection 
accorded  to  foreign  congregations,  the  appointment  of 
Martyr  and  Bucer  to  divinity  chairs  in  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, the  Royal  Visitation,  the  Book  of  Homilies,  the 
Thirty-six  Injunctions,  the  repeal  of  Henry's  Six  Articles 
and  heresy  acts,  the  Lord's  Supper  in  both  kinds,  the  new 


Motives  Worthy  and  Unworthy  139 

order  of  communion,  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  the 
Forty-two  Articles,  the  Short  Catechism,  the  king's  Primer, 
the  numberless  changes  in  forms,  and  rites,  and  doctrines, 
like  substituting  tables  for  altars,  admitting  the  clergy  to 
marriage,  discontinuing  auricular  confession,  consecrated 
oil,  prayers  for  the  dead,  candles,  palms,  ashes,  beads,  etc. 
— all  these  innovations  were  directly  and  avowedly  in  the 
interest  of  the  reformed  religion. 

We  must  not  forget,  however,  that  these  radical  meas- 
ures were  enacted  in  the  midst  of  revolutionary  times,  and 
that  in  times  of  revolution  all  sorts  of  motives  and  am- 
bitions bear  sway  in  the  minds  of  men.  The  worthy  and 
the  unworthy,  the  divine  and  the  diabolical,  are  strangely 
commingled.  Evil  men  promote  righteous  interests,  and 
good  men  lend  themselves  to  doubtful  measures.  Some  of 
the  best  and  some  of  the  worst  men  in  English  history 
figure  prominently  in  these  revolutionary  changes. 

King  Edward  was  only  an  infant,  wholly  under  the 
control  of  his  elders,  and  is  not  to  be  seriously  considered. 
His  training  gave  him  reformed  tendencies,  and  he  must  be 
looked  upon  as  an  unusually  bright  and  intelligent  lad, 
whose  impulses  were  virtuous,  and  whose  influence,  as  far 
as  he  had  any,  was  on  the  side  of  righteousness. 

Of  Somerset  and  Northumberland,  few  words  in  praise 
can  be  spoken.  They  were  successively  leaders  in  the 
council — both  were  ambitious  and  selfish,  and  both  were 
unscrupulous.  Neither  was  actuated  by  religious  motives. 
They  used  the  doctrines  and  the  property  of  the  church  for 
their  own  aggrandizement,  and  they  so  abused  their  place 
and  power  as  to  turn  the  people  into  hostility  to  the  very 
cause  they  were  trying  to  promote. 

The  religious  leaders,  like  Latimer,  Ridley,  and  Cran- 
mer,  were  vastly  superior  to  their  political  brethren,  but 


I40  The  Protestantism  of  Edward's  Reign 

they  were  not  free  from  grave  faults,  which,  however,  are 
to  be  charged,  in  large  measure,  to  the  prevailing  sentiment 
and  usages  of  the  day  in  which  they  lived. 

The  leaders  in  the  opposition,  like  Gardiner,  Tonstal, 
and  Bonner,  were  men  who,  in  the  next  reign,  when  "Bloody 
Mary"  kindled  the  martyr  fires,  proved  themselves  to  be 
furious  beasts,  though  holding  the  office  of  favored  bishops. 
They  gave  no  evidence  that  God's  regenerating  or  even 
restraining  grace  ever  touched  their  hearts. 

Throughout  the  reign  politics  and  religion  were  so  mixed 
that  one  could  scarcely  be  distinguished  from  the  other,  or 
rather,  religion  lost  its  sacred  character,  and  was  sadly 
soiled  in  the  strife  and  greed  of  the  political  squabble.  The 
clergy  were  involved  in  the  general  wreck.  The  few  who 
cherished  convictions  fought  their  adversaries  desperately, 
believing  truth  to  be  in  peril.  The  many,  who  were  too 
ignorant  and  ignoble  to  have  convictions,  sided  with  the 
winning  party  to  save  their  necks,  and  were  chiefly  intent 
on  gathering  in  the  spoils.  Romanism  still  held  most  of  the 
priestly  class  in  superstitious  thrall,  and  their  episcopal 
leaders  encouraged  them  in  their  papistical  practices.  It 
was  to  these  that  Latimer  referred  in  his  celebrated  sermon. 
It  was  evident  enough  that  popery  was  not  dead  in  Edward's 
time,  and  that  political  preferment  had  not  reformed  the 
holders  of  fat  livings.  Hear  the  quaint  language  of  the 
great  preacher: 

Ever  since  the  prelates  were  made  lords  and  nobles  the  work  of  the 
Gospel  plough  standeth  still :  there  is  no  work  done,  the  people  starve. 
They  hawk,  they  hunt,  they  card,  they  dice;  they  pastime  in  their 
prelacies  with  gallant  gentlemen,  with  their  dancing  minions,  and  their 

fresh  companions,  so  that  preaching  is  clean  gone And  now  I 

would  ask  a  strange  question.  Who  is  the  most  diHgent  bishop  and 
prelate  in  all  England,  that  passes  all  the  rest  in  doing  his  office?  I 
can  tell,  for  I  know  him  who  he  is,  I  know  him  well.     But  now  I 


Sermons  by  Latimer  and  Gilpin  141 

think  I  see  you  listening  and  hearkening  that  I  should  name  him. 
There  is  one  that  passes  all  others,  and  is  the  most  diligent  prelate 
and  preacher  in  all  England.  And  will  you  know  who  he  is?  I  will 
tell  you :  it  is  the  devil.  He  is  the  most  diligent  of  all  preachers ;  he 
is  never  out  of  his  diocese:  he  is  never  out  of  his  cure:  ye  shall  never 
find  him  unoccupied :  he  is  ever  in  his  parish :  he  keeps  residence  at 
all  times.  And  his  office  is  to  hinder  religion,  to  maintain  super- 
stition, to  set  up  idolatry,  to  maintain  all  kinds  of  popery.  Where  the 
devil  is  resident  and  has  his  plough  going,  there,  away  with  books, 
and  up  with  candles ;  away  with  Bibles,  and  up  with  beads ;  away  with 
the  light  of  the  Gospel,  and  up  with  the  light  of  candles,  yea,  at  noon- 
day. Where  the  devil  is  resident,  that  he  may  prevail,  up  with  all 
superstition  and  idolatry;  censing,  painting  of  images,  candles,  palms, 
ashes,  holy  water,  and  new  service  of  men's  inventing.  Down  with 
Christ's  cross,  up  with  purgatory  pick-purse,  up  with  him,  the  popish 
purgatory,  I  mean.  Away  with  clothing  the  naked,  the  poor,  and 
impotent;  up  with  the  decking  of  images,  and  gay  garnishing  of  stocks 
and  stones;  up  with  men's  traditions  and  laws,  and  down  with  God's 
traditions  and  His  most  Holy  Word.  Let  all  things  be  done  in  Latin : 
there  must  be  nothing  but  Latin :  even  the  words,  "Remember,  man, 
that  thou  art  ashes,  and  into  ashes  thou  shalt  return,"  must  be  spoken 
in  Latin.    God's  Word  may  in  no  wise  be  translated  into  English. 

In  the  same  vein,  though  in  a  more  general  way,  Bernard 
Gilpin  inveighs  against  the  evil  of  the  times.  Gilpin  had 
been  appointed  to  a  vicarage,  and,  in  keeping  with  the 
custom  of  the  time,  he  must  needs  preach  before  the  king 
to  evince  the  soundness  of  his  faith.  Unfortunately  both 
the  king  and  the  court  were  absent  (not  an  uncommon 
occurrence),  but  Gilpin,  not  deterred  by  this,  addressed 
his  fiery  eloquence  to  the  benches  where  Edward  and  his 
council  ought  to  have  been  sitting.  He  gave  a  true  picture 
of  the  state  of  the  times. 

There  are  livings,  your  Grace,  of  forty  or  fifty  pounds, 
which  gentlemen  keep,  giving  five  or  six  pounds  to  a  vicar 
who,  for  his  part,  never  comes  there.  I  know  a  living  of  an  hundred 
marks,  not  to  say  pounds,  that  has  been  sold  for  a  term  of  ninety-nine 


142  The  Protestantism  of  Edward'' s  Reign 

years.  That  living,  in  a  godly  learned  pastor's  hand,  might  have 
refreshed  five  hundred  a  year  writh  ghostly  food,  and  all  the  country 
around  with  God's  word :  and  there  is  need ;  for  in  twenty  miles 
compass  there  is  scarce  a  man  to  preach :  the  boys  and  girls  of  four- 
teen or  fifteen  cannot  say  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Patrons  see  that  none 
do  their  duty.  They  think  it  as  good  to  put  in  asses  as  men.  In  time 
past  the  bishops  were  never  so  liberal  in  making  of  lewd  priests,  but 
they  are  as  liberal  now  in  making  lewd  vicars.  Darvel  Gaden,  the 
Welsh  idol  that  was  burned  in  Smithfield,  might  have  had  a  benefice, 
if  he  could  have  set  his  hand  to  a  bill  to  let  the  patron  take  the  most 
of  the  benefits.  Half  of  the  clergy  in  England  are  pluralists  or  non- 
residents. A  thousand  pulpits  in  England  are  covered  with  dust :  some 
have  not  had  four  sermons  these  fifteen  or  sixteen  years,  since  friars 
left  their  limitations. 

He  lamented  the  decay  of  learning,  he  bewailed  the  con- 
dition of  the  poor : 

Look  upon  the  two  wells  of  this  realm,  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
they  be  almost  dried  up.  There  are  scarce  left  a  hundred  students  out 
of  every  thousand :  in  seven  years  more,  if  they  decay  as  fast,  the 
devil  may  order  his  triumph,  for  there  will  be  almost  none  at  all.  As 
for  the  poor,  they  are  spoiled  and  robbed,  turned  out  of  their  holding 
and  rights  by  rich  men  and  gentlemen,  like  mice  out  of  shrouds. 
Indeed  the  rich  take  it  for  no  offense  to  turn  the  poor  out  of  their 
holds,  but  they  say  the  land  is  their  own.  Thousands  in  England  beg 
from  door  to  door  who  once  kept  honest  houses.  They  come  to 
London  in  great  numbers  seeking  for  justice.  They  cannot  get  speech 
of  the  great  men  to  whom  they  are  suitors,  because  they  cannot  find 
money  to  bribe  their  servants.  Barabbas  was  a  notable  thief,  says  St. 
Matthew,  a  gentleman  thief,  such  as  rob  now-a-days  in  velvet  coats. 
There  were  two  other  thieves,  when  Christ  suffered;  but  they  were 
little  thieves,  like  those  who  steal  from  necessity  now-a-days.  The 
rustical  thieves  were  hanged,  and  Barabbas  was  delivered. 

The  evils  of  which  Gilpin  complains  grew  out  of  the 
crimes  of  which  men  in  aristocratic  circles  and  high  in 
civil  authority  had  been  guilty.  Somerset  grossly  abused 
his  power  in  despoiling  the  lands  and  riches  of  the  church, 
and  as  plainly  evinced  his  weakness  in  handling  the  con- 


Abuses  by  Northumberland  and  Somerset  143 

troversies  between  the  landholders  and  the  peasants.  As  a 
result  he  drew  upon  himself  the  enmity  of  all,  and  culti- 
vated both  in  church  and  state  a  spirit  of  lawlessness  which 
broke  out  in  all  sorts  of  disorders  and  confusions.  North- 
umberland was  even  more  unscrupulous,  and,  with  greater 
strength  and  ferocity  of  will,  acted  a  more  dishonorable  part, 
crowning  all  in  the  plot  to  deprive  Mary  of  her  throne  and 
to  seat  his  son's  wife,  Lady  Jane  Gray.  The  people  rejected 
the  scheme,  not  because  they  so  much  loved  Mary  or  be- 
lieved in  her  papistry,  as  because  they  hated  Northumber- 
land and  the  usurpation  of  power.  They  were  weary  of 
misrule.  Justly  to  their  minds  the  Reformation  was  ill 
commended  by  the  conduct  of  its  champions.  The  leaders, 
guilty  of  lawless  violence  and  ruinous  rapine,  lost  the  con- 
fidence and  support  of  sober  Englishmen,  and  turned  loose 
and  inflamed  the  enemies  of  piety  and  order. 

All  sorts  of  wild  notions  were  broached.  Blatant  infi- 
delity found  its  adherents.  Men  denied  the  deity  of  Christ, 
called  in  question  the  basal  ideas  of  religion  and  morality, 
indulged  in  all  kinds  of  daring  speculations,  denounced 
oaths  as  unlawful,  advocated  community  of  goods,  and 
harangued  in  praise  of  polygamy. 

The  nation  was  passing  through  the  throes  of  revolu- 
tion, which  meant,  for  the  time  being,  religious  and  civil 
anarchy  and  chaos.  Priests  were  ill  treated  and  mobbed; 
the  utensils  and  ornaments  were  stolen  from  the  altars; 
horses  and  mules  were  driven  into  the  churches;  images 
were  demolished,  and  a  general  spirit  of  spoliation  and 
iconoclasm  prevailed. 

Somerset  built  his  magnificent  palace  in  the  Strand  on 
the  site  of  three  episcopal  houses  (Worcester,  Lichfield, 
and  Landoff),  and  the  material  for  it  had  come  from  the 
demolition  of  St.  Mary-le-Strand,  a  cloister  of  St.  Paul's 


144  The  Protestantism  of  Edward's  Reign 

Cathedral,  and  the  Church  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of 
Jerusalem.  Westminster  Abbey  itself  came  near  going. 
The  dean  saved  it  only  by  sacrificing  half  its  revenues  to 
Somerset.  An  act  of  Parliament  gave  to  Edward  the  lands 
of  the  chantries,  hospitals,  and  guilds;  and  the  favorites  of 
Somerset  and  Northumberland  got  crown  lands  to  the  value 
of  five  million  pounds  in  modern  values.  The  expenses  of 
the  government  ran  up  from  nineteen  thousand  pounds  per 
annum,  to  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  pounds.  The 
council  was  careless  and  criminal  in  the  squandering  of 
public  funds,  and  the  protectors  and  their  courtiers  gorged 
themselves  with  benefices,  chantries,  and  manors.  If 
gentlemen  thieves  in  velvet  coats  were  robbing  after  this 
fashion,  it  was  no  wonder  that  rustical  thieves  followed 
their  example.  Fuller  was  reporting  both  classes  when  he 
wrote  that 

private  men's  halls  were  hung  with  altar  cloths,  their  tables  and 
beds  covered  with  copes  instead  of  with  carpets  and  coverlets.  Many 
drank  at  their  daily  meals  in  chalices;  and  no  wonder  if  it  came  to 
the  share  of  their  horses  to  be  watered  in  coffins  of  marble. 

It  was  a  period  of  civil  and  economical  and  ecclesiastical 
revolution,  and  politicians  and  theologians  and  civilians 
were  turning  religion  and  law  and  property  and  social  con- 
ditions to  their  own  advantage.  Some  of  these  actors  were 
fervent  and  godly,  some  were  crafty  and  grasping,  some 
were  anxious  and  bewildered — all  were  involved  together 
in  the  general  turmoil  and  upheaval.  Disorder,  injustice, 
and  anarchy  were  confusedly  mixed  with  the  earnest  and 
terrific  struggle  for  a  reform  in  morals  and  doctrine.  While 
homilies,  prayer-books,  confessions,  and  catechisms  were 
getting  themselves  recognized;  while  transubstantiation, 
purgatory,  Mariolatry,  and  celibacy  were  getting  themselves 
banished;  while  the  Church  of  Rome  was  getting  itself 


Proceedings  Divine  and  Devilish  145 

crowded  out ;  and  the  Church  of  England  was  getting  itself 
established  in  worship,  polity,  and  doctrine,  all  sorts  of 
proceedings  (divine  and  devilish  and  all  degrees  between) 
were  forming  conspicuous  features  of  English  politics  and 
religion.  Farmers  were  being  fenced  out  of  their  holdings. 
Arable  lands  were  being  turned  into  sheep  ranges.  Nobles 
were  being  punished  for  inclosure  and  erections.  Revolts 
were  being  stamped  out  in  blood.  German  and  Italian 
mercenaries  were  hewing  down  English  malcontents  and 
rebels.  Vicars  and  curates,  who  absolutely  hated  the 
Reformation,  were  fighting  the  reforming  fanatics,  who 
hated  every  last  rag  of  popery.  Ignorant  priests  and  greedy 
laymen  were  despoiling  the  church,  though  their  ill-gotten 
gains  might  cost  them  the  loss  of  their  souls.  Noble  lords 
were  giving  rich  benefices  to  their  gamekeepers  that  they 
themselves  might  pocket  the  profits.  Bishops  were  being 
sent  to  the  Tower  for  opposing  the  regency.  The  regency 
was  ruling  with  terror  and  tyranny.  The  protectors  were 
filling  their  cofiiers  with  the  spoils  of  the  sanctuary.  Cran- 
mer  was  eating  meat  openly  in  Lent.  Priests  were  taking 
to  themselves  wives.  Latimer  was  thundering,  like  an  old 
Hebrew  prophet,  against  the  crimes  of  the  times.  The  coin 
of  the  realm  was  being  debased.  The  chantry  lands  were 
going  to  the  king.  The  courtiers  were  receiving  their  share 
of  the  plunder.  A  few  grammar  schools  and  hospitals  were 
being  founded.  Attendance  at  the  universities  was  running 
down.  The  teaching  of  divinity  was  coming  to  an  end. 
The  university  libraries  were  being  scattered  and  burned. 
Acts  of  uniformity  were  forcing  the  use  of  the  prayer-books. 
Subscription  to  the  Forty-two  Articles  was  being  imposed 
on  the  clergymen,  church  leaders,  and  schoolmasters.  The 
Duke  of  Somerset  was  being  sent  to  the  Tower  and  thence 


146  The  Protestantism  of  Edward^ s^Reign 

to    the    scaffold.     Anabaptists    were    being    tortured    and 
burned. 

We  ought  not  to  hide  the  fact  from  our  eyes  that  dis- 
order and  injustice,  rancor  and  persecution,  rapacity  and 
despotism,  characterized  the  reign  of  Edward  VI,  while 
churchmen  and  statesmen  were  revolutionizing  the  religion 
of  the  land. 

The  reign  of  Edward,  then,  had  its  dark  side  and  its 
bright  side.  On  its  bright  side  we  may  say,  that,  while 
under  his  father  the  break  with  Rome  occurred — a  move- 
ment chiefly  negative,  destructive,  and  political — in  his 
own  reign  the  Church  of  England  was  really  established  in 
worship,  polity,  and  doctrine,  (i)  Public  worship  in 
English  supplanted  worship  in  Latin.  (2)  Transubstantia- 
tion  was  overthrown,  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  with  com- 
munion in  both  kinds  for  the  laity,  took  the  place  of  the 
mass.  (3)  A  book  of  common  prayer  was  formulated; 
the  many  excellences  of  which  have  been  generally  recog- 
nized and  warmly  praised.  (4)  Forty-two  Articles  of 
Religion  were  set  forth,  most  of  which  express  the  doctrines 
of  evangelical  religion.  (5)  Ministers  were  permitted  to 
marry  and  have  homes  and  families — thus  doing  away  with 
the  evils  of  enforced  celibacy.  These  and  other  enactments 
were  in  the  interests  of  a  true  reformation,  and  the  English 
church  is  in  the  enjoyment  of  these  blessings  to  the  present 
day. 

In  a  final  word  it  may  be  said :  First,  the  political  lead- 
ers, like  Somerset,  Northumberland,  and  others,  were  not 
spiritual  men,  and  seem  to  have  favored  the  Reformation 
largely  as  a  matter  of  statecraft  and  for  personal  aggran- 
dizement. Secondly,  the  religious  leaders,  like  Cranmer, 
Hooper,  Ridley,  Latimer,  and  others  were  fervent  and 
godly,  but  were  not  free  from  the  limitations  and  short- 


Reformation  Conditions  Summarized  147 

comings  of  their  times.  Thirdly,  Edward  and  the  godly 
went  as  far  as,  in  their  judgment,  the  times  would  allow, 
but  persecuted  those  who  tried  to  go  farther.  No  room  was 
left  for  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  private  judgment,  and 
freedom  of  conscience  and  soul-liberty  were  not  recognized. 
Much  was  made  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  but  those  Scrip- 
tures were  not  consistently  maintained  as  the  final  standard 
of  appeal.  Anabaptists,  standing  on  Bible  ground,  were  tor- 
tured and  burned.  Fourthly,  the  theology  of  the  reformers 
was  Augustinian.  They  had  no  sympathy  whatever  with 
what  we  know  as  Arminian  or  as  Socinian  views,  and  they 
leaned  rather  to  the  Calvinistic  than  to  the  Lutheran  side. 
Fifthly,  in  church  polity  they  had  abandoned  the  sacerdotal- 
ism and  sacramentalism  of  the  Romish  church.  They 
recognized  only  two  orders  of  the  clergy,  bishops  or  elders, 
and  deacons,  and  they  joyously  fellowshiped  non-episcopal, 
continental  churches. 

Finally,  such  were  the  men  and  such  was  the  church 
they  established  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  In  the  reign 
of  the  present  king,  Edward  VII,  the  same  church  con- 
tinues, and  yet  it  is  not  the  same.  Among  its  leaders  and 
great  divines  are  men  who  love  and  admire,  and  men  who 
hate  and  execrate,  the  early  reformers.  The  church  today 
embraces  clergymen  of  the  widest  divergency  of  views. 
Some  are  avowedly  in  fullest  sympathy  with  the  Roman 
church  and  cannot  be  distinguished  from  popish  priests; 
others  glory  in  the  Reformation,  defend  the  name  of  Cran- 
mer,  and  teach  an  uncompromising  Calvinism;  others  are 
stout  defenders  of  Arminianism;  others  do  not  hesitate  to 
maintain  Arianism;  while  still  others  hold  a  purely  nega- 
tive creed. 

Within  the  Establishment  there  is  a  low  church,  a  broad 
church,  and  a  high  church.     Since  Dean  Stanley's  day,  the 


148  The  Protestantism  0}  Edward's  Reign 

Broad  Church  has  had  no  conspicuous  and  commanding 
representative.  The  evangehcal  Low  Church  has  httle 
influence  in  either  poHtical  or  ecclesiastical  circles.  The 
dominant  force  in  the  Establishment  is  the  High  Church, 
which  more  and  more  repudiates  the  Reformation  and  more 
and  more  looks  longingly  toward  Rome.  Taking  it  as  a 
whole,  it  has  been  truly  said,  the  Church  of  England  "has  a 
Calvinistic  creed,  a  Romish  liturgy,  and  an  Arminian 
clergy." 


V 

PROTESTANT  SUFFERINGS  UNDER 
"BLOODY  MARY" 


PROTESTANT  SUFFERINGS  UNDER  ''BLOODY 

MARY" 

Mary  reigned  from  1553  to  1558 — five  years  and  a  little 
more.  These  are  the  worst  five  years  in  English  history. 
Other  English  sovereigns  have  been  bigots,  tyrants,  and 
persecutors,  but  no  sovereign  can  compare  with  Mary  in 
the  horrid  excesses  of  bigotry  and  cruelty.  The  sufferings 
to  which  she  subjected  Protestants  assumed  three  forms: 
(i)  Banishment;  (2)  Imprisonment;  (3)  Burning. 

I.  Banishiuent. — The  banishment  was  self-inflicted 
through  the  dread  of  something  worse.  To  save  their  lives, 
between  eight  hundred  and  nine  hundred  Englishmen  for- 
sook their  homes  and  property  and  fled  penniless  to  the  Con- 
tinent. Besides  these,  large  numbers  crossed  over  the 
borders  into  Scotland.  These  exiles  were  forced  to  find 
homes  among  strangers.  Some  of  them  gained  employment 
as  teachers  and  translators,  but  they  were  for  the  most  part 
dependent  on  the  charity  of  foreigners  and  remittances  from 
friends  at  home.  They  felt  the  pinch  of  poverty  and  want. 
They  were  nearly  all  men  of  learning  and  influence,  so 
reduced  in  purse  as  to  lack  the  bare  necessaries  of  life. 
Among  them  were  five  bishops,  five  deans,  four  arch- 
deacons, fifty  doctors  of  divinity  and  great  preachers,  and 
hundreds  of  nobles,  merchants,  and  others.  Among  the 
great  ones  were  Poynet,  Barlow,  Coverdale,  Cox,  Haddon, 
Horn,  Turner,  Sampson,  Grindal,  Jewel,  Sandys,  Reynolds, 
Knox,  Parkhurst,  Fox,  Peter  Martyr,  and  John  A'Lasco. 

They  fled  to  Basle,  Frankfort,  Strasburg,  Zurich, 
Geneva,  and  many  other  places  in  France,  Flanders,  Ger- 

151 


152  Protestant  Sufferings  Under  Mary 

many,  and  Switzerland.  We  shall  never  know  how  much 
these  exiles  suffered  in  body  and  mind,  for  they  were  not 
complaining  men,  but  their  letters  and  other  writings  give 
us  glimpses  of  their  hardships,  toils,  and  struggles,  and  we 
can  easily  imagine  the  rest.  Their  lot  was  a  hard  one,  but 
they  bore  it  patiently,  trusting  God  and  waiting  for  a 
brighter  day.  All  they  suffered,  however,  is  to  be  charged 
to  the  account  of  the  persecuting  queen.  She  was  the 
source  and  author  and  cause  of  it  all. 

2.  Imprisonment. — No  record  has  been  kept  of  the 
number  who  were  cast  into  prison.  All  over  England  great 
numbers  of  Protestants  were  behind  bolts  and  bars.  Prison 
life  today  is  luxurious  compared  with  prison  life  in  Mary's 
day.  I  myself  have  seen  Newgate,  Oldgate  (Old  Bailey), 
Marshalsea,  the  Tower,  and  the  dungeons  of  the  Continent. 
These  have  been  overhauled  and  modernized,  but  they  are 
dreadful  still.  There  was  no  such  provision  then  as  now 
for  ventilation,  for  warming,  for  cleanliness,  for  sleeping, 
and  feeding,  and  bathing,  for  employment  and  recreation. 
All  these  things  which  make  prison  life  tolerable  today  were 
utterly  wanting  then.  All  the  horrors  of  prison  life,  hun- 
dreds and  hundreds  of  Protestants  suffered  under  the 
Catholic  queen.  Prisoners  begged  piteously  for  trial,  even 
while  convinced  that  trial  would  result  in  condemnation. 
Many  a  prisoner  died  before  trial  came,  and  many  a  prisoner 
suffered  a  hundred  deaths  before  the  final  agony  ended  all 
at  the  stake.  Burning  was  a  glad  release  after  months  and 
years  of  confinement,  privation,  and  misery.  This  is  a 
species  of  suffering  we  are  apt  to  overlook  when  calling  up 
the  enormities  of  the  reign  of  "Bloody  Mary." 

3.  Burning. — When  men  were  actually  burned  to  death 
we  begin  to  think  about  suffering.  If  we  could  accurately 
measure  the  sum  total  of  human  anguish  that  Mary  caused, 


Burnings  Under  Mary  153 

I  think  the  horrors  of  the  stake  would  form  only  a  small 
fraction  of  it.  The  dreadful  experiences  of  the  refugees  in 
Scotland  and  on  the  Continent,  and  the  still  more  dreadful 
experiences  of  the  prisoners  in  Mary's  loathsome  dungeons 
would  far  outweigh  the  short,  sharp  anguish  of  the  stake. 
The  number  who  were  actually  burned  is  fairly  well  known. 
The  figures  differ  only  slightly.  The  Jesuits  have  tried  to 
diminish  the  numbers  made  by  Foxe,  but  after  a  most 
searching  scrutiny  of  his  lists  they  have  been  able  to  throw 
doubt  on  only  a  very  few.  The  Romanists  acknowledge 
that  Foxe  is  substantially  correct. 

The  burnings  have  been  given  by  Foxe  and  others  as 
follows :  Foxe  says  286  were  burned ;  Burnet,  284 ;  Strype, 
288;  Neal,  277;  Burleigh,  400;  Perry,  286.  Perry  gathers 
his  data  mostly  from  Foxe.  Burnet  says  284  were  burned. 
Strype  says,  in  1555,  71  were  burned;  in  1556,  89;  in  1557, 
88;  in  1558,  40;  total,  288,  besides  those  who  died  by  famine 
in  sundry  prisons.  Neal  says  2"/"/  reformers  were  burned : 
5  bishops,  21  clergymen,  8  gentlemen,  84  tradesmen,  100 
farmers  and  servants,  55  women,  4  children.  Besides,  54 
were  persecuted  to  the  death,  7  were  whipped,  and  16  died  in 
prison.    The  rest  escaped  by  Mary's  death. 

In  Burleigh's  Executions  for  Treason,  written  in  the 
time  of  Elizabeth,  it  is  stated  that  400  suffered  publicly, 
plus  those  secretly  murdered  in  prison :  20  bishops  and  digni- 
fied clergy ;  60  women ;  40  children.  Some  women  were  big 
with  child.  One  woman  was  delivered  in  the  flames,  her 
babe  being  thrown  back  into  the  fire.  Perry  says  there  were 
burned  in  1555,  75 ;  in  1556,  83;  in  1557,  77;  in  1558,  51; 
total,  286,  46  of  whom  were  women.  Besides,  68  perished 
in  prison. 

There  were  six  dioceses  in  which  no  burnings  took 
place:    Lincoln,  Durham,  Carlisle,  Bath  and  Wells,  Here- 


154  Protestant  Sufferings  Under  Mary 

ford,  Worcester.  Burnings  by  dioceses  were  as  follows: 
London,  128;  Canterbury,  55;  Norwich,  46;  Others,  6,  6, 
6,  6,  7,  3,  3,  6,  3,  I,  I,  I,  5,  3,  total,  286.  The  average  in 
London  was  ^^  each  year.  One  was  burned  ever  11  days 
for  four  years. 

In  the  diocese  of  London,  many  of  the  burnings,  though 
not  all,  took  place  at  Smithfield.  In  London  are  hundreds 
and  even  thousands  of  places  of  historic  interest.  Smith- 
field  is  one  of  these.  It  is  greatly  changed  in  appearance 
since  Mary's  day,  but  there  is  the  open  space,  and  there  are 
still  some  of  the  buildings  which  surrounded  and  closed  it 
in  the  time  of  the  Tudors,  well-nigh  350  years  ago.  On 
one  side  is  St.  Bartholomew's  Church  in  Norman  style,  very 
old  and  interesting;  on  another  side  is  the  cattle  market, 
where  meat  from  all  parts  of  the  world  is  sold  wholesale. 
I  saw  great  stalls  owned  by  Armour,  Swift,  and  others, 
and  the  familiar  Chicago  signs  reminded  me  of  home.  On 
another  side  is  St.  Bartholomew's  Hospital,  one  of  the 
great  hospitals  of  London,  founded  in  1102  and  repaired 
by  Henry  VIII  in  1546,  refounded  and  endowed  by  Edward 
VI  out  of  chantry  funds.  On  one  of  the  walls  of  the 
hospital  fronting  Smithfield  is  a  red  granite  slab  with  the 
inscription : 

The  noble  army  of  martyrs  praise  Thee.  Within  a  few  feet  of 
this  spot  John  Rogers,  John  Bradford,  John  Philpot,  and  others,  ser- 
vants of  God,  suffered  death  by  fire  for  the  faith  of  Christ  in  the 
years  I555,  56,  57- 

You  remember  Bonner  was  bishop  of  London.  He  it 
was  under  whom  the  burnings  took  place.  He  was  the 
most  bloody  Englishman  alive,  save  only  ''Bloody  Mary." 
When  Gardiner  could  endure  it  no  longer  he  turned  the 
burnings  over  to  Mary  and  Bonner.     Before  the  first  year 


The  Bloody  Bishop  Bonner  155 

of  this  bloody  work  ended  he  was  the  most  hated  man  in 
England. 

A  woman  wrote  to  Bishop  Bonner  that  there  was  not  a  child  but 
called  him  Bonner  the  hangman  and  knew  on  his  fingers,  as  well  as 
he  knew  his  Pater  Noster,  the  exact  number  of  those  he  had  burned  at 
the  stake,  and  suffered  to  die  in  prison  these  last  nine  months.  You 
have  lost  the  hearts  of  20,000  persons  who  were  inveterate  papists  a 
year  ago. 

Under  Elizabeth,  Bonner  visited  the  criminals  in  the 
Tower  and  called  them  friends  and  neighbors.  One  an- 
swered, "Go,  you  beast,  into  hell,  and  find  your  friends 
there,  for  we  are  none  of  them.  I  killed  one  man  (provoca- 
tion) ;  you  have  killed  many  holy  persons  of  all  sorts." 

Roman  Catholic  writers  are  hard  put  to  it  for  some 
excuse  for  these  diabolical  proceedings.  They  generally  fall 
back  upon  the  plea  that  among  the  Protestants  were  those 
who  insulted  the  queen's  religion,  and  this  justly  exasperated 
her.  Some  Catholic  writers,  however,  are  decent  enough  to 
acknowledge  that  there  is  no  palliation  whatever  for  these 
enormities.  For  instance,  Tierney  condemns  them  unquali- 
fiedly.   He  says : 

To  detail  them  would  be  a  revolting  task;  the  mind  would  shud- 
der, the  heart  sicken,  at  the  recital.  At  times  a  momentary  suspen- 
sion of  cruelty  seemed  to  indicate  the  presence  of  a  milder  spirit.  But 
the  illusion  was  quickly  dissipated.  New  commissions  were  issued, 
new  barbarities  enacted,  and  a  monument  of  iniquity  was  erected 
which,  even  at  the  distance  of  three  centuries,  cannot  be  regarded 
without  horror. 

EFFECTS  OF  MARY's  PERSECUTIONS 

In  the  first  place,  they  totally  alienated  the  English  people 
from  their  sovereign.  Whatever  regard  they  may  have 
had  for  her  at  the  beginning  of  her  reign  by  virtue  of  the 
office  she  held,  they  lost  it  all  when  she  began  to  drag  her 
subjects  into  the  fire.    The  martyrdom  of  Rogers,  Hooper, 


156  Protestant  Sufferings  Under  Mary 

Latimer,  Ridley,  Cranmer,  and  hundreds  more,  filled  them 
with  indignation  and  horror.  The  burning  of  Cranmer 
especially  created  a  profound  reaction.  His  age,  his  high 
position,  his  long  career,  his  close  relations  with  Henry  and 
Edward,  his  agency  in  creating  the  Church  of  England,  his 
bitter  sufferings  in  prison,  his  recantations,  and  his  heroic 
death,  made  him  the  greatest  of  Mary's  victims,  whose 
burning  horrified  the  English  mind. 

As  the  persecutions  continued,  the  feeling  grew  that  an 
incarnate  fiend,  and  not  a  human  being,  sat  on  the  English 
throne.  Detestation  and  abhorrence  seized  the  public  mind. 
The  people  told  her  of  their  hatred  in  anonymous  letters. 
They  hid  these  communications  in  her  devotion  books.  The 
more  they  hated,  the  worse  she  persecuted,  and,  in  turn,  the 
deeper  grew  the  hatred.  No  sovereign  more  loathed  ever 
sat  on  the  English  throne,  and  no  sovereign  whose  memory 
is  blackened  in  deeper  infamy.  The  English  people  will 
always  hold  her  in  horror  and  detestation.  Someone  has 
truly  said:  "Her  reign  ought  to  be  transmitted  down  to 
posterity  in  letters  of  blood." 

In  the  second  place,  by  these  persecutions  the  papacy  lost 
its  grasp  on  England  forever.  In  the  light  of  these  burnings 
the  English  people  read  the  innermost  spirit  and  intent  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  and  were  led  to  execrate  everything 
connected  with  that  bloodthirsty  institution.  They  learned 
(never  to  forget)  that  Rome  is  evermore  the  synonym  of 
bigotry,  cruelty,  tyranny,  everything  to  be  dreaded,  loathed, 
resisted.  This  they  learned  from  Rome's  most  devoted 
queen.  It  was  the  Pope's  "Bloody  Mary"  who  freed  the 
English  nation  from  the  Pope's  bloody  church. 

In  the  third  place,  these  persecutions  hastened,  if  they 
did  not  create,  that  Puritanism  which  has  ever  since  been  the 
implacable  foe  of  Roman  Catholicism.   Mary's  cruelty  drove 


Mary  UnwiUingly  Fostered  Protestantism  157 

eight  hmidrecl  heretics  to  the  Continent.  There  they  were 
taught  the  imperfections  of  King  Edward's  prayer-book,  its 
many  remaining  papal  rites  and  superstitions.  There  they 
learned  to  cherish  the  forms  of  worship  adopted  by  the  re- 
formed churches.  When  Mary  died  they  returned  to  England 
to  fight  both  Romanists  and  Anglicans,  and  to  create  a  party 
pledged  to  root  out  of  the  English  service-books  every 
remaining  vestige  of  papistical  error  and  superstition.  They 
returned  to  England  to  hold  popery  in  deeper  abhorrence 
than  ever  before;  to  do  their  utmost  to  purge  popery  out 
of  the  Prayer-Book;  when  they  failed  in  this,  to  refuse  to 
conform  to  papal  practices  and  worship;  when  they  were 
persecuted  for  non-conformity,  to  throw  episcopacy  itself 
overboard  and  seek  to  substitute  in  its  place  a  national  estab- 
lishment presbyterian  and  not  episcopalian  in  its  polity — a 
presbyterianism  they  had  learned  of  John  Calvin  at  Geneva. 
Then  growing  out  of  these  hot  contentions  there  sprang  up 
a  party  which  repudiated  a  national  church  of  any  sort, 
whether  presbyterian  or  episcopalian,  and  became  the  advo- 
cates and  champions  of  independency.  Christ  has  vested 
power  in  the  local  church;  the  New  Testament  warrants 
neither  an  episcopalian  nor  a  presbyterian  establishment.  It 
knows  nothing  of  any  of  these  things,  whether  episcopacy, 
or  presbytery,  or  establishment.  A  national  church  of  what- 
ever sort  is  repugnant  to  the  biblical  idea,  and  ought  to  be 
done  away.  Thus  Mary,  in  driving  Englishmen  into  exile, 
unwittingly  fostered  Protestantism,  Puritanism,  Non-con- 
formity, Presbyterianism,  Separatism,  Independency  (I.  e., 
Congregationalism).  Little  did  she  dream,  in  driving  out 
eight  hundred  and  more  of  the  best  representatives  of  Protes- 
tant thought — bishops,  archdeacons,  professors,  doctors  of 
divinity,  laymen  of  rank  and  power — that  she  was  driving 
them  all  away   to   school — to   learn   from   Lutheran   and 


158  Protestant  Sufferings  Under  Mary 

reformed  Protestants  what  Christianity  really  is,  as  they 
had  never  learned  it  in  England.  Little  did  she  dream  that 
in  less  than  a  decade  these  men  would  be  back  in  England 
to  advocate  and  champion  reforms  far  more  radical  than 
any  her  father  or  brother  had  ever  planned.  Little  did  she 
dream  that  by  this  very  act  she  was  destroying  that  ver>' 
church  which  she  was  trying  in  such  frantic  and  cruel  ways 
to  establish. 

In  the  fourth  place,  Mary's  persecutions  helped  and 
hastened  the  Reformation  in  Scotland.  The  Pope  and  the 
Catholic  powers  hoped  with  the  accession  of  Mary  to  crush 
the  rising  Protestant  spirit  in  the  north  of  the  island,  and 
to  force  Scotland  back  into  the  pale  of  the  Romish  church. 
Her  accession  had  exactly  the  opposite  effect. 

In  the  reigns  of  Henry  and  Edward  the  relations  be- 
tween England  and  Scotland  were  strained.  Henry  wished 
to  bring  Scotland  under  English  sway,  and  to  this  end  he 
wished  to  engage  the  children  Edward  and  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots.  Disputes  arose,  war  ensued,  and  Mary  was  engaged 
to  the  Dauphin  of  France.  At  the  same  time  the  Reforma- 
tion was  starting  under  Hamilton,  Wishart,  and  Knox. 

When  Mary  came  to  the  throne  and  restored  popery, 
many  so-called  heretics  fled  to  the  Continent,  and  many 
crossed  the  borders  into  Scotland,  where  they  were  gladly 
received,  the  religious  love  outweighing  the  political  hate. 
These  English  heretics  greatly  aided  the  Scotch  reform 
movement.  The  cruelties  of  Henry  and  Somerset  (in 
Edward's  reign)  had  alienated  the  Scotch  and  retarded  the 
Reformation.  But  the  bigoted,  popish  zeal  of  Mary  drove 
English  Protestants  to  Scotland,  and  hastened  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  English  exiles  in  Scotland  had  a  very  marked 
effect  on  the  Scotch  Reformation.  Mary's  persecution 
accelerated  and  augumented  the  Protestant  movement. 


Mary's  Persecutions  Favored  Democracy  159 

In  the  fifth  place,  Mary's  persecutions  gave  a  great 
impetus  to  the  cause  of  democracy.  They  helped  forward 
political  as  well  as  religious  liberty.  This  was  an  idea 
England  and  Europe  were  slow  to  receive.  Living  for  ages 
under  monarchy  and  feudalism,  the  people — the  common 
people — took  it  for  granted  that  their  sole  duty  was  to  obey. 
It  was  the  prerogative  of  the  king  and  the  lord  to  command, 
and  of  those  under  them  to  submit.  Were  they  not  subjects, 
and  is  it  not  the  part  of  subjects  to  be  in  subjection?  So 
rulers  had  taught,  and  so  the  ruled  had  believed.  This  was  by 
divine  appointment,  and  so  this  constituted  part  of  religion. 
To  rebel  against  it  was  to  rebel  against  God.  Kings  are  di- 
vinely called,  and  they  rule  by  divine  right.  But  Mary's  horrid 
cruelties  set  men  to  thinking :  Is  there  no  limit  to  this  divine 
prerogative?  Can  she  banish,  imprison,  burn?  and  does 
heaven  uphold  her  throne  while  she  does  it  ?  Would  it  be  a 
sin  against  heaven  to  resist  sheer  tyranny  and  cruelty? 
Have  the  people  no  rights?  By  heaven's  ordaining  is  the 
sovereign  everything,  and  are  the  subjects  nothing?  Are 
there  no  mutual  and  reciprocal  relations,  obligations,  duties  ? 
For  ages,  to  raise  such  a  question  was  treason  against 
heaven,  but  in  the  light  of  Mary's  burnings  men  began  to  see 
— dimly. 

One  man  got  his  eyes  fairly  open,  and  he  greatly  helped 
other  men.  John  Knox  had  labored  in  England  for  five 
years  to  build  up  the  Reformation.  Soon  after  Mary's 
accession,  her  popish  agents  were  after  him,  and  he  fled 
to  France.  When  the  stake  began  to  claim  its  victims,  John 
Knox  could  endure  it  no  longer,  and  he  issued  his  famous 
book.  First  Blast  of  the  Trumpet  Against  the  Monstrous 
Regiment  {Government)  of  Women.  He  had  in  mind 
Mary  of  Guise,  regent  of  Scotland;  Mary  Stuart,  her 
daughter,  afterward  Queen  of  Scots;  and  "Bloody  Mary"  of 


i6o  Protestant  Sujjerings  Under  Mary 

England.  He  thought  government  by  women  was  some- 
thing monstrous,  and  that  the  EngHsh  Mary  was  the  modern 
Jezebel.  While  a  student  at  St.  Andrew's  he  had  learned 
from  his  teacher,  John  Major,  that  councils  were  above 
popes,  and  that  nations  gave  authority  to  kings.  These 
sentiments  he  thundered  in  his  book.  Sovereigns  have  the 
divine  right  to  rule  righteously.  The  "powers  that  be"  are 
not  "ordained  of  God"  farther  than  they  exercise  their 
power  according  to  the  will  of  God.  If  they  use  their 
authority  to  thwart  God's  will,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  people 
to  resist.  God  is  above  the  king,  and  the  subjects  must 
obey  God.  If  the  king  persists  in  his  impious  rule,  the 
people  must  depose  him,  and,  if  the  necessity  is  dire,  they 
may  even  put  him  to  death.  Subjects  have  the  power  to 
resist  their  princes  if  princes  exceed  their  bounds.  Children 
ought  to  obey  their  parents,  but  children  may  bind  a  parent 
who  is  seized  with  a  frenzy.  It  was  right  for  the  Israelites 
to  resist  the  Egyptian  pharaohs,  for  Daniel  to  disobey  the 
king  of  Babylon,  for  Christ  and  the  apostles  to  stand  up 
against  the  Roman  Empire.  Kings  and  queens  ought  to  be 
nursing  fathers  and  nursing  mothers,  but  when  they  became 
despots  and  tried  to  destroy  their  children,  resistance  was 
not  unlawful. 

This  doctrine  had  a  strange  sound  in  Scottish  and  Eng- 
lish ears,  but  it  was  not  an  unwelcome  sound.  The  people, 
then,  have  some  rights ;  the  obligation  is  not  all  on  one  side. 
The  subject  has  the  divine  right  to  be  ruled  justly.  "Passive 
obedience"  is  not  the  requirement  of  Scripture.  Mary's 
burnings  burned  this  thought  into  many  minds.  Mary's 
burnings  called  out  Knox's  trumpet  blast,  and  the  blast  in 
turn  answered  the  questionings  and  confirmed  the  convic- 
tions of  many  hesitating  English  minds.  Democracy  did 
not  gain  a  complete  triumph  in  Mary's  reign.     It  is  not 


The  Curse  Turned  Into  a  Blessing  i6i 

triumphant  in  England  to  this  day.  In  the  reigns  of  the 
Stuarts,  fawning  bishops  and  a  subservient  Episcopal  church 
carried  "divine  right"  and  "passive  obedience"  to  insane 
lengths,  but  in  Mary's  reign,  and  by  reason  of  her  bloody 
acts,  democracy  got  an  impetus  it  never  lost. 

In  Mary's  banishments,  imprisonments,  and  burnings  we 
have  a  signal  exhibition  of  God's  overruling  providence. 
She  designed  them  to  destroy  Protestantism  and  to  build 
Romanism.  They  had  precisely  the  opposite  effect.  They 
caused  the  English  people  to  hate  their  bigoted  popish 
queen.  They  caused  England  to  hate  her  despotic  popish 
religion.  They  educated  a  strong  English  party  in  puritan 
sentiments,  which  party  subsequently  fought  Romanists  and 
Anglicans,  and  itself  split  into  the  two  great  presbyterian 
and  independent  divisions.  It  was  Mary's  persecutions 
which  afterward  gave  England  her  Cromwells,  Long  Par- 
liaments, and  Westminster  Assemblies. 

They  sent  heroic  English  spirits  into  Scotland  to  guide 
and  advance  the  Scotch  Reformation  to  a  successful  issue. 
They  awakened  inquiries  respecting  the  rights  of  sovereignty 
which  gave  a  real  impetus  to  democracy.  Mary  tried  to 
burn  Protestantism  out  of  England.  She  succeeded  in  get- 
ting herself  detested  and  her  popish  religion  abhorred.  She 
succeeded  in  giving  strength  and  zeal  and  success  to  Puritan- 
ism. She  succeeded  in  making  the  reformed  religion  in 
Scotland  triumphant.  And  she  taught  the  common  people 
that  they  have  rights — political  and  religious — which  their 
rulers  are  bound  to  respect.  She  detested  all  these  things, 
but  by  her  own  cruel  conduct  she  made  these  detested  things 
victorious. 
mary's  disappointments  and  the  failure  of  her  reign 

I.  Her  connection  with  Philip  turned  out  unhappily. 
Her  marriage  was  a  miserable  failure.     After  giving  him 


1 62  Protestant  Sufferings  Under  Mary 

all  the  affection  her  heart  contained,  he  requited  her  with 
coldness,  infidelity,  and  desertion.  After  living  with  her 
fifteen  months,  during  which  he  was  guilty  of  improper  rela- 
tions with  other  women,  he  quit  her  for  good.  Before  leav- 
ing her  he  drew  her  into  a  war  with  France,  which 
impoverished  England  and  lost  her  Calais  and  her  conti- 
nental possessions.  She  had  set  her  heart  on  having  issue 
from  the  marriage  with  Philip;  but  it  proved  a  false  con- 
ception, or  rather  no  conception  at  all,  but  some  internal 
malady,  from  which  she  never  recovered. 

2.  Her  religious  policy  turned  out  a  miserable  failure. 
It  excited  the  horror  and  disgust  of  the  nation.  It  gained 
for  her  the  hatred  and  loathing  of  her  subjects.  It  defeated 
the  re-establishment  of  Romanism.  It  introduced  into  Eng- 
land the  doctrinal  system  and  church  polity  of  John  Calvin. 
It  had  a  mighty  ultimate  effect  in  making  Scotland  Protes- 
tant It  excited  the  fears  and  awakened  the  opposition  of 
the  English  nobility,  who  dreaded  the  restoration  of  their 
abbey  lands.  It  set  nobles  and  peasants  alike  on  an  inquiry 
after  the  foundations  of  kingly  pretensions,  and  after  a  new 
adjustment  of  the  relations  between  princes  and  subjects. 
In  its  ultimate  effects  it  subserved  the  interests  of  both 
religious  and  civil  freedom. 

3.  Mary's  domestic  and  foreign  policy  was  wholly  dis- 
graceful and  ruinous.  The  loss  of  Calais,  after  England 
had  held  it  in  possession  for  210  years,  bowed  the  nation's 
pride  in  the  very  dust.  Mary  said,  "When  I  am  dead,  and 
my  body  is  opened,  ye  shall  find  'Calais'  written  on  my 
heart." 

The  home  policy  was  equally  disastrous.  The  treasury 
was  depleted.  The  "crown"  lands  and  large  gifts  were 
made  over  to  the  Pope.  The  national  debt  was  growing. 
The  mints  were  sending  out  debased  coin.     The  foreign 


Marys  Disappointment,  Failure,  Death  163 

trade  was  falling  off.  Domestic  industries  were  languish- 
ing. The  ships  and  forts  were  going  to  decay.  Pirates 
were  infesting  the  channel.  Mary's  policy  was  crowding 
the  nation  on  to  the  ragged  edge  of  bankruptcy  and  general 
collapse. 

"Whom  the  gods  would  destroy,  they  first  make  mad." 
The  bigoted  queen  pursued  a  matrimonial,  religious,  foreign, 
and  domestic  policy  which  utterly  frustrated  her  own 
designs,  and  well-nigh  destroyed  the  nation.  Her  love 
affairs,  her  popish  zeal,  her  commercial  and  political  deal- 
ings at  home  and  abroad,  all  missed  their  end. 

Her  so-called  miscarriage,  the  desertion  of  her  husband, 
the  calamities  that  attended  her  policy  in  church  and  state, 
destroyed  her  health,  made  her  irritable  and  gloomy,  and 
brought  her  to  the  grave  a  disappointed  and  vanquished 
wreck.  She  knew  her  subjects  hated  her.  She  knew  the 
martyr  fires  she  had  kindled  had  not  destroyed  the  Refor- 
mation. She  knew  that  with  her  death  the  papal  religion 
would  come  to  an  end.  She  knew  that  Calais  and  the 
French  possessions  were  gone  forever.  She  knew  that  her 
foreign  policy  had  bankrupted  the  nation.  She  knew  that 
even  nature  and  the  elements  seemed  to  be  in  league  against 
her — lightnings,  floods,  tempests,  diseases,  sweeping  away 
the  people  in  multitudes,  so  that  in  many  parts  there  were 
not  enough  priests  living  to  bury  the  dead. 

Knowing  all  this,  it  is  no  wonder  that  "she  lived,"  as 
the  French  ambassador  wrote,  "almost  alone,  employing 
all  her  time  in  tears,  lamentations,  and  regrets,  in  writing  to 
try  to  draw  back  her  husband  to  her,  and  in  fury  against 
her  subjects."  So  the  miserable  creature  miserably  per- 
ished. Mary  died  November  17,  1558.  Pope,  cardinal, 
legate,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  died  within  twenty-two 
hours  thereafter.     Thirteen  Roman  Catholic  bishops  and  a 


164  Protestant  Sufferings  Under  Mary 

large  number  of  the  clergy  died  of  the  quartan  fever,  which 
was  then  epidemic,  in  a  ver}^  short  time.  Thus  most  of  the 
foremost  enemies  of  Protestantism  were  almost  immediately 
providentially  taken  out  of  the  way. 

THE  CHARACTER  OF  MARY 

It  is  not  difficult  for  candid  historians  to  give  an  accu- 
rate estimate  of  the  character  of  Mary.  They  all  agree  that 
she  had  her  father's  obstinate  will  and  her  mother's  super- 
stitious religion.  I  quote  a  paragraph  from  Ranke,  one 
from  Wakeman,  and  another  from  Hume.  They  fairly 
represent  the  general  verdict. 
Ranke : 

As  Queen  Mary  is  designated  "the  Bloody"  we  are  astonished 
when  we  read  the  authentic  descriptions,  still  extant,  of  her  personal 
appearance.  She  was  a  little,  slim,  delicate,  sickly  woman,  with  hair 
already  turning  grey.  There  was  something  in  her  eyes  that  could  even 
rouse  fear;  her  voice,  which  could  be  heard  at  a  great  distance,  told 
of  something  unwomanly  in  her.  She  was  a  good  speaker  in  public; 
never  did  she  show  a  trace  of  timidity  in  danger.  The  troubles  she 
had  experienced  from  her  youth,  her  constant  antagonism  to  the 
authority  under  which  she  lived,  had  especially  hardened  in  her  the 
self-will  which  is  recognizable  in  all  the  Tudors.  All  her  sympathies 
were  for  the  nation  from  which  her  mother  came.  She  was  abso- 
lutely determined  to  do  all  she  could  to  restore  and  strengthen  Catholi- 
cism in  England.  Gardiner  assures  us,  and  we  may  believe  him  in 
this,  that  it  was  not  he  who  prompted  the  revival  of  the  old  laws 
against  the  Lollards;  the  chief  impulse  to  it  came,  on  the  contrary, 
from  the  queen.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  persecutions  would 
never  have  begun  without  her.  No  excuse  can  clear  her  memory 
from  the  dark  shade  which  rests  upon  it.  That  which  is  done  in  a 
sovereign's  name,  with  his  will  and  consent,  determines  his  character 
in  history. 

Wakeman : 

In  her  narrow  and  obstinate  nature,  warped  by  past  years  of  un- 
merited neglect,  lacerated  by  the  ever-present  sting  of  unrequited  love, 
justice,  not  mercy,  appeared  the  first  and  most  sacred  of  duties.    The 


The  Character  of  Mary  165 

cloud  which  fell  upon  her  own  life,  the  disappointment  of  the  expected 
heir,  the  development  of  incurable  disease,  the  sense  of  her  growing 
unpopularity  with  her  people,  the  warfare  of  nature  against  her,  the 
storms  which  ravished  the  coast,  the  blight  which  destroyed  the  crops, 
the  last  and  most  terrible  disgrace  of  the  loss  of  Calais,  all  seemed 
to  her  the  awful  judgments  of  an  oflf ended  God,  demanding  from  her 
by  his  portents  vengeance  upon  his  enemies.  As  each  new  misfortune 
wrung  her  heart  or  threatened  her  throne,  fresh  batches  of  victims 
were  sent  to  the  stake  by  the  miserable  queen,  in  the  despairing  hope 
that  by  human  sacrifice  she  could  appease  the  wrath  of  heaven. 
History,  in  its  compassion  for  her  wrongs,  in  its  pity  for  her  sex,  has 
tried  in  vain  to  find  in  her  the  victim,  not  the  author,  of  so  terrible  a 
policy,  and  has  sought  to  cast  the  blame  of  the  massacres  upon  the 
vengeance  of  Gardiner,  the  brutality  of  Bonner,  or  the  cruelty  of  the 
Spaniards.  But  the  clear  light  of  recent  research  has  scattered  such 
figments  to  the  winds,  and  for  good  or  for  ill  Mary  Tudor  must  stand  at 
the  bar  alone  to  answer  for  the  stain  of  blood  which  lies  so  deep 
across  the  page  which  records  the  few  years  of  her  reign. 

Hume: 

Mary  possessed  all  the  qualities  fitted  to  compose  a  bigot;  and  her 
extreme  ignorance  rendered  her  utterly  incapable  of  doubt  in  her  own 
belief,  or  indulgence  to  the  opinions  of  others.  She  possessed  few 
qualities  either  estimable  or  amiable;  and  her  person  was  as  little 
engaging  as  her  behavior  and  address.  Obstinacy,  bigotry,  violence, 
cruelty,  revenge,  tyranny,  every  circumstance  of  her  character,  took  a 
tincture  from  her  bad  temper  and  narrow  understanding. 

Did  she  believe  she  was  doing  God  service?  She  said 
to  Parliament  late  in  her  reign,  she  believed  "she  had  been 
predestined  and  preserved  by  God  to  the  succession  of  the 
crown  for  no  other  end  save  that  he  might  make  use  of  her 
above  all  else  in  the  bringing  back  of  the  realm  to  the 
Catholic  faith." 

THE    RELATION    OF    THE   REIGN    OF    MARY    TO    THE    PRESENT 
CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND 

When  we  summed  up  the  reign  of  Henry  VHI,  we  raised 
the  question  whether  the  Church  of  England  owed  its  origin 


1 66  Protestant  Sufferings  Under  Mary 

to  this  monarch.  Many  episcopal  writers — high  church- 
men— insist  that  the  beginning  must  be  dated  back  to 
Augustine,  whom  Pope  Gregory  sent  in  597,  and  who  be- 
came the  first  archbishop  of  Canterbury;  that  their  church 
existed  before  the  Reformation,  and  it  has  never  ceased  to 
exist  since.  If  this  is  true,  then  in  the  reign  of  "Bloody 
Mary"  we  still  have  the  Church  of  England.  It  was  the 
Church  of  England,  of  which  these  gentlemen  are  mem- 
bers, which  burned  Rogers,  Ridley,  Hooper,  Latimer,  and 
Cranmer ;  which  sent  three  hundred  Protestants  to  the  stake, 
and  drove  eight  hundred  Protestants  into  exile.  It  was  the 
Church  of  England  which  elevated  bigoted  and  bloodthirsty 
Roman  Catholics,  like  Gardiner,  Bonner,  Heath,  and  Day, 
into  Episcopal  bishoprics.  It  was  the  Church  of  England 
which  abolished  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  the  Forty- 
two  Articles,  and  the  English  Bible.  It  was  the  Church  of 
England  which  acknowledged  the  supreme  headship  of  the 
Pope  of  Rome,  and  which  enforced  belief  in  transubstan- 
tiation,  the  seven  sacraments,  Mariolatry,  clerical  celibacy, 
purgatory,  auricular  confession,  and  the  worship  of  saints, 
images,  and  relics.  It  was  the  Church  of  England  which 
set  up  altars,  crosses,  and  crucifixes,  which  substituted  Latin 
for  English  in  public  worship,  which  sent  men  running  on 
pilgrimages,  and  which,  with  fire  and  blood,  compelled  the 
acceptance  of  all  popish  doctrines  and  the  observance  of 
all  popish  ceremonies. 

To  ordinary  intelligence  all  this  looks  like  the  Church 
of  Rome  in  England,  and  it  all  looks  like  something  to  be 
abhorred.  But  to  the  modern  churchman,  so  essential  is  it 
to  preserve  the  slender  line  of  sweet  continuity  that,  through 
the  horrible  reign  of  "Bloody  Mary,"  we  are  still  dealing 
with  the  Church  of  England. 


VI 
ELIZABETH  AND  THE  PURITANS 


VI 

ELIZABETH  AND  THE  PURITANS 

Elizabeth  was  the  daughter  of  Anne  Boleyn,  the  second 
wife  of  Henry  VIII.  Her  mother  was  beheaded  when  she 
was  two  years  and  eight  months  old.  Her  education  was 
intrusted  to  persons  who  favored  the  reformed  religion. 
She  had  a  retentive  memory,  quick  perceptions,  a  marvelous 
power  of  prolonged  and  intense  application.  She  acquired 
a  fair  knowledge  of  German,  and  was  perfectly  familiar 
with  Latin,  Greek,  French,  and  Italian.  In  theology,  philos- 
ophy, and  statecraft  she  made  herself  a  master.  Of  course 
her  penmanship,  horsemanship,  music,  and  court  accomplish- 
ments were  not  neglected.  In  original  endowments  and 
solid  and  polite  acquirements,  she  was  perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  woman  of  the  age. 

Her  childhood  and  maiden  days  were  not  altogether 
happy  ones.  The  tarnished  reputation  of  her  mother,  the 
Bluebeard  proceedings  of  her  father,  the  unkind  conduct  of 
her  brother,  the  positive  cruelty  of  her  sister,  must  have 
made  the  memory  of  the  past,  the  experience  of  the  present, 
the  anticipation  of  the  future,  anything  but  joyous  and 
delightsome.  With  increasing  years  there  also  came  in- 
creasing perils.  Her  relation  to  the  Protestant  party  caused 
the  Catholic  Mary  to  order  her  arrest  and  confinement  in 
the  Tower.  Charles  V  and  some  of  the  most  powerful 
bishops  and  state  councilors  vehemently  urged  her  execution, 
and  she  barely  saved  her  neck  by  professing  to  be  a  Roman 
Catholic. 

169 


lyo  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

STATE  OF  ENGLAND  AT  HER  ACCESSION 

On  the  death  of  her  blood-stained  sister,  she  ascended 
the  throne  in  1558,  being  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and 
reigned  forty-five  years.  The  outlook  was  most  forbidding 
— appalling  is  perhaps  a  better  word.  As  concerned  her- 
self, she  was  queen,  indeed,  but  everybody  knew  that  she 
had  previously  been  declared  illegitimate  and  incapable  of 
the  crown  by  her  father,  Henry  VIII,  by  her  brother, 
Edward  VI,  by  her  sister,  the  "Bloody  Mary,"  by  the  Pope, 
by  the  Star  Chamber,  by  the  Convocation,  and  twice  by  act 
of  Parliament. 

So  doubtfully  a  queen  at  all,  there  was  nothing  in  the 
condition  of  the  realm  to  inspire  hope.  The  national 
treasury  was  empty — worse  than  empty ;  for  in  the  previous 
reign  the  revenues  had  been  anticipated,  and  the  kingdom 
was  staggering  under  an  enormous  debt.  Trade  was 
languishing,  and  to  make  matters  worse,  the  coin  had  been 
debased,  and  the  channel  was  full  of  pirates.  An  impend- 
ing financial  crash  she  had  to  face.  The  nation  was  in  the 
midst  of  a  war  with  France — a  disastrous  war  which  threat- 
ened the  overthrow  of  the  English  throne.  Mary  Stuart 
was  claiming  the  seat  which  Elizabeth  had  just  taken,  and 
was  resorting  to  all  manner  of  political  and  religious  plot- 
tings  to  gain  her  end.  The  papacy  and  France,  Scotland, 
and  Spain  were  secretly  or  openly  hostile  to  the  new  queen, 
and  doing  their  utmost  to  work  her  ruin.  In  addition  to  all 
this,  among  her  own  subjects  there  was  being  waged  a  huge 
factional  religious  fight.  Does  Elizabeth  Tudor  possess  the 
strength,  the  courage,  the  wisdom,  the  tact,  and  skill  to 
guide  the  ship  of  state  through  these  tempestuous  seas  to  a 
secure  and  restful  haven  ? 

In  this  paper,  dropping  all  the  rest,  we  are  set  to  watch 
the  outworkings  of  her  religious  diplomacy. 


Tlie  Persecuted  Return  from  the  Continent  171 

THE  RETURN  OF  THE  MARIAN  EXILES 

No  sooner  was  Mary  dead  and  Elizabeth  in  power  than 
the  persecuted  ones  began  to  show  their  heads.  Men  who 
had  been  in  hiding  in  England,  whose  ku-king-places 
Mary's  officers  could  not  discover,  appeared  upon  the 
streets,  and  began  again  that  religious  agitation  for  which 
their  lives  had  been  in  peril. 

Other  men  who  had  made  their  escape  to  the  Continent 
hastily  returned  to  their  native  land.  Some  of  these  men 
had  been  professors  in  the  universities  in  the  days  of 
Edward  VI,  and  bishops  and  deans  and  archdeacons  and 
noted  divines  and  knights  and  nobles.  Mary's  fury  drove 
them  to  Switzerland  and  the  Low  Countries,  and  the  cities 
on  the  Rhine — drove  them  out  by  hundreds.  During  their 
absence  these  men  had  become  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
reform  views  and  spirit,  the  doctrines  and  discipline  advo- 
cated by  Zwingli  and  Calvin.  They  brought  back  with  them 
^eight  hundred  of  them  and  more — a  deal  of  experience  and 
learning  and  piety.  Their  eyes  had  been  opened,  their 
heads  had  been  turned,  their  hearts  had  been  changed. 
Their  notions  of  things  generally  had  been  completely  revo- 
lutionized. They  didn't  like  popery  at  all,  didn't  like  any 
of  the  rags  or  dregs  or  fooleries  of  popery  at  all.  They  had 
got  above  and  beyond  all  that. 

No  sooner  were  they  landed  in  England  than  they  began 
to  act  out  their  convictions.  They  would  have  nothing  to  do 
with  Mary's  Catholic  Service-Book.  They  denounced  it. 
They  went  so  far  as  to  overthrow  the  images  and  altars  and 
whatever  else  had  the  look  of  Romish  idolatry.  They  called 
loudly  for  a  new  order  of  things,  for  a  thoroughgoing 
reform,  for  the  total  rejection  of  the  "relics  of  the  Amor- 
ites,"  for  the  substitution  of  a  rational  and  spiritual  religion. 


172  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

Of  course  all  this  made  the  Romanists  furious,  and  they 
raised  a  loud  and  bitter  cry.  The  issues  were  joined,  and  an 
ugly,  prolonged  religious  quarrel  seemed  inevitable.  The 
queen  was  not  at  all  pleased.  She  was  forming  an  eccle- 
siastical policy  of  her  own,  which  the  hot-heads  of  botli 
parties,  if  not  hindered,  would  frustrate  and  destroy.  She 
took  matters  into  her  own  hands. 

PREACHING  FORBIDDEN 

One  month  and  ten  days  after  her  accession  she  issued 
a  proclamation  intended  to  stop  the  religious  disputes  untU 
her  own  plan  of  settlement  could  be  matured.  She  charged 
and  commanded  all  manner  of  her  subjects,  lay  and  clerical, 
reformers  and  Catholics,  to  forbear  from  all  teaching  and 
preaching,  whether  in  public  or  in  private.  In  the  churches 
the  people  might  hear  the  gospel  and  epistle  for  the  day  and 
the  Ten  Commandments  in  English.  They  might  also  join  in 
the  Lord's  Prayer  and  in  repeating  the  Creed.  But  the  ser- 
mon must  be  omitted,  and  every  species  of  comment  and 
remark.  Upon  the  Scripture  read  there  was  no  "exposition 
of  any  manner,  sense,  or  meaning  to  be  applied  or  added." 
Just  simply  read  these  few  simple  forms  and  let  the  matter 
stop  right  there.  Let  this  silence  continue  until  the  proper 
authorities  shall  have  determined  the  kind  of  religion  and  the 
order  of  worship  to  which  the  queen's  subjects  must  sub- 
mit. Until  then,  "strait  prohibition"  must  everywhere 
prevail. 

THE    FIRST    PARLIAMENT 

Elizabeth's  first  parliament  met  in  January,  1559.  It 
had  been  so  "fixed"  and  "cooked,"  so  worked  in  "blocks  of 
five,"  that  there  stood  a  clear  majority  in  favor  of  the 
Reformation.  Proceeding  to  business  it  passed  an  act  taking 
the  annates  and  tenths  from  the  church  and  restoring  them 


First  Parliament  and  Act  of  Supremacy  173 

to  the  crown.  It  passed  an  act  repealing  some  of  the 
religious  penal  laws  and  permitting  subjects  to  worship 
after  the  fashion  prevailing  in  the  last  year  of  Edward  VI. 
It  passed  an  act  requiring  the  public  worship  of  God  in  the 
English  tongue.  It  passed  an  act  empowering  the  queen  to 
name  the  bishops  for  vacant  sees.  It  passed  an  act  suppress- 
ing the  convents  which  Mary  had  created  and  turning  over 
the  proceeds  to  the  crown.  And  it  passed  two  other  acts 
of  immense  importance,  the  Act  of  Supremacy  and  the  Act 
of  Uniformity. 

THE  ACT  OF  SUPREMACY 

In  the  Act  of  Supremacy  the  queen  was  made  all  that 
the  Pope  had  been  in  other  days.  With  the  court  of  Rome 
all  connection  of  whatever  sort  was  wholly  and  forever 
broken.  All  writing,  printing,  teaching,  or  preaching, 
whereby  a  papal  jurisdiction  was  defended,  brought  upon 
laymen  confiscation  of  goods  and  imprisonment  of  person, 
and  upon  ecclesiastics  loss  of  benefice  for  the  first  offense, 
praemunire  for  the  second,  and  high  treason  for  the  third. 
In  the  place  of  the  Pope,  the  queen  was  made  supreme,  and 
to  this  supremacy  were  attached  all  honors,  dignities,  im- 
munities, profits,  and  commodities  to  the  church  appertain- 
ing.    To  her  was  given  full 

power  and  authority  to  visit,  repress,  redress,  reform,  order,  correct, 
restrain,  and  amend  all  such  errors,  heresies,  abuses,  contempts,  and 
enormities,  whatsoever  they  be,  which  by  any  manner  of  spiritual 
authority  or  jurisdiction  ought  or  may  be  lawfully  reformed,  repressed, 
ordered,  corrected,  restrained,  or  amended  most  to  the  pleasure 
of  Almighty  God,  and  increase  of  virtue  in  Christ's  religion,  and  for 
the  conservation  of  the  peace,  unity,  and  tranquillity  of  this  realm;  any 
usage,  custom,  foreign  law,  foreign  authority,  prescription,  or  any- 
thing or  things  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding Moreover,   all 

persons   in   any   public   employs,   whether   civil    or    ecclesiastical,    are 


1 74  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

obliged  to  take  an  oath  in  recognition  of  the  queen's  right  to  the 
crown,  and  of  her  supremacy  in  all  causes  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  on 
penalty  of  forfeiting  all  their  promotions  in  the  chureh,  and  of  being 
declared  incapable  of  holding  any  public  office. 

THE  COURT  OF  HIGH  COMMISSION 

Attached  to  this  Act  of  Supremacy  was  a  clause  which 
authorized  the  queen  to  appoint  a  "Court  of  High  Com- 
mission" to  whose  keeping  and  control  the  religion  of  every 
Englishman  should  be  unreservedly  committed.  To  this 
court  was  given  the  right  and  power,  under  Elizabeth,  of 
course,  "to  use,  occupy,  and  exercise  all  manner  of  juris- 
diction, privileges,  and  pre-eminences,  touching  any  spiritual 
or  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  within  the  realms  of  England 
and  Ireland;  to  visit,  reform,  redress,  order,  correct,  and 
amend  all  errors,  heresies,  schisms,  abuses,  contempts, 
offences,  and  enormities  whatsoever."  The  high-handed 
proceedings  of  this  "Court  of  High  Commission,"  its  arbi- 
trary findings,  its  acts  of  tyranny  and  oppression,  its  fin- 
ings and  confiscations  and  imprisonings,  will  run  as  warp 
threads  through  our  study  of  Puritanism  for  nearly  a  hun- 
dred years  (i 559-1641),  until  the  English  people  have 
grown  free  and  strong  enough  to  trample  it  out  of  existence, 
and  with  it  that  other  odious  court,  the  Star  Chamber. 

THE    ACT    OF    UNIFORMITY 

The  other  important  act — viciously  important — which 
this  first  parliament  of  Elizabeth  passed,  was  entitled  "An 
Act  for  the  Uniformity  of  Common  Prayer  and  Service  in 
the  Church,  and  Administration  of  the  Sacraments." 

To  understand  this  action  of  Parliament  in  its  history 
we  must  give  attention  to  the  queen's  method  of  procedure. 
She  was  the  animating  spirit  from  first  to  last,  and  she  had 
her  own  way  of  proceeding.     When  Elizabeth  came  to  the 


Papists  Dejeaied  and  Prayer-Book  Revised  175 

throne,  the  churches  throughout  the  realm  were  in  the  pos- 
session of  Mary's  Romish  priests.  Something  must  be  done 
to  accompHsh  their  discomfiture,  and  to  justify  the  changes 
in  pubHc  worship  upon  which  the  queen  had  set  her  will. 

THE  WESTMINSTER  DISPUTATION 

To  this  end  she  appointed  a  public  disputation  in  West- 
minster Abbey  at  which  the  members  of  Parliament  should 
be  present.  She  selected  sixteen  disputants — eight  on  a  side 
— eight  Romanists  against  eight  reformers.  Three  ques- 
tions were  to  be  discussed :  ( i )  Whether  it  is  against  the 
Word  of  God  and  the  custom  of  the  ancient  church  to 
officiate  and  administer  the  sacraments  in  a  language  un- 
known to  the  people;  (2)  Whether  every  church  has 
authority  to  appoint,  change,  or  set  aside  ceremonies  and 
ecclesiastical  rites,  provided  the  same  be  done  to  edifying; 
(3)  Whether  it  can  be  proved  in  the  Word  of  God  that  there 
is  offered  in  the  mass  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  for  the  quick 
and  the  dead  ? 

Elizabeth  so  controlled  the  preliminaries  and  movement 
of  the  debate  as  to  insure  the  defeat  of  the  Papists.  This 
they  discovered  at  the  first  meeting,  and  indignantly  with- 
drew, thus  giving  the  reformers  the  victory. 

THE  REVISED  PRAYER-BOOK 

The  Romanists  being  disposed  of  and  the  way  being 
clear,  the  next  thing  was  to  unite  the  "reformed"  among 
themselves.  It  being  agreed  that  we  are  to  have  a  new 
church,  the  question  now  is,  what  shall  the  new  church  be? 
Doctrinally,  we  need  not  tarry  long,  for  in  main  matters 
happily  we  all  see  eye  to  eye.  Well  then,  let  us  come  to 
church  order,  government,  discipline,  ritual,  ceremonies,  and 
the  like.  Here  there  was  a  division.  The  reformers  who  had 
been  driven  into  exile  under  Mary  said,  over  on  the  Con- 


176  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

tinent  we  found  a  church  pattern  which  the  EngHsh  nation 
ought  to  adopt — it  is  close  to  the  New  Testament  and  far 
removed  from  Rome.  The  reformers  who  had  stayed  at 
home  during  Mary's  reign  said,  the  church  which  Edward 
VI  set  up  suits  us,  only  let  those  parts  of  the  service  which 
hurt  our  countrymen,  the  Romanists,  be  toned  down  as 
much  as  possible.  Elizabeth  was  more  in  sympathy  with 
Papists  than  with  extreme  reformers,  and  the  Edward  VI 
idea  suited  her  exactly.  Accordingly  she  appointed  a  com- 
mission of  divines  to  review  King  Edward's  liturgy  and  to 
pare  away  all  such  expressions  as  might  be  specially  obnox- 
ious to  her  Catholic  subjects,  such,  for  example,  as  the 
prayer,  "From  the  tyranny  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  and  all  his 
detestable  enormities,  good  Lord,  deliver  us."  When  the 
book  was  fixed  up  to  the  queen's  liking,  it  was  presented  to 
both  houses  of  Parliament  and  was  enacted  into  law.  Hence- 
forth all  English  subjects  must  worship  God  according  to 
the  book,  without  variation  or  shadow  of  turning.  This 
was  the  famous  (or  infamous)  Act  of  Uniformity.  The 
form  of  public  worship  being  thus  determined  (by  the  state 
and  not  by  the  church)  there  was  contained  in  the  statute 
this  clause : 

The  queen  is  hereby  empowered,  with  the  advice  of  her  commis- 
sioners or  metropolitan,  to  ordain  and  publish  such  farther  cere- 
monies and  rites  as  may  be  for  the  advancement  of  God's  glory  and 
edifying  his  church,  and  the  reverence  of  Christ's  holy  mysteries  and 
sacraments. 

A  full  reserve  of  power  was  thus  left  in  the  queen's 
hands.  This  whole  scheme  was  of  her  devising,  and  she 
proposed  to  keep  it  in  complete  control. 

UNIFORMITY  ENFORCED 

The  Act  of  Uniformity  went  into  operation  June  24, 
1559,   seven  months   and  seven  days  after  the   death   of 


The  Act  0}  Uniformity  Enforced  177 

"Bloody  Mary."  In  one  brief  half-year,  the  English  church 
passed  from  the  obedience  of  Pope  Paul  IV  to  the  obedience 
of  "Pope  Elizabeth  I."  When  she  became  queen  she  sent  to 
him  an  ambassador  to  announce  her  accession,  by  whom 
he  sent  back  the  haughty  answer,  "that  to  the  Holy  See, 
and  not  to  her,  belonged  the  throne,  to  which  she  had  no 
right,  as  being  a  bastard."  In  less  than  a  year  she  showed 
him  that  to  her  belonged  both  throne  and  pulpit,  combining 
in  her  sweet  virgin  self  both  queen  and  pope.  Henceforth 
the  queenly  pope  Elizabeth  bears  sway  in  the  British  Isles. 

Law  without  sanction  is  mere  advice.  Parliament  ar- 
ranged that  the  Act  of  Uniformity  should  have  the  force 
of  law.  In  England  we  are  to  worship  God  after  a  pre- 
scribed fashion.  Law  shall  determine  our  doctrinal  beliefs, 
the  way  we  shall  pray  and  sing,  the  very  words  we  shall 
use,  the  very  posture  of  body  we  shall  assume,  the  very 
clothes  we  shall  wear.  And  from  these  regulations  there 
shall  be  no  slightest  deviation — in  every  minutest  feature 
the  rubric  shall  be  exactly  followed. 

But  suppose  an  English  subject  should  break  the  law — 
what  then  ?  What  then  ?  Why,  every  absence  from  church 
without  reasonable  excuse  shall  mean  a  fine  of  a  shilling  to 
be  levied  on  one's  goods  and  given  to  the  poor.  The  poor 
themselves  will  see  to  it  that  no  absences  are  overlooked. 
And  once  in  church,  if  an  English  subject  is  found  guilty  of 
addressing  God  in  language  other  than  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  guilty  of  sitting  when  he  ought  to  kneel,  guilty  of 
performing  service  without  surplice,  cope,  and  tippet,  for 
the  first  ofl^ense  he  shall  suffer  the  loss  of  all  his  goods  and 
chattels;  for  the  second  offense  he  shall  go  to  jail  for  a  year; 
for  the  third  offense  his  shall  be  a  life-imprisonment.  The 
purpose  is  to  make  Uniformity  uniform,  and  no  doubt  about 
it.    No  dodging. 


lySj  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

Divide  the  English  people  into  three  classes :  ( i )  Those 
who  believed  with  the  Pope — call  them  Romanists;  (2) 
Those  who  believed  with  Elizabeth — call  them  Anglicans; 
(3)  Those  who  believed  with  the  continental  reformers — 
Calvin,  Melancthon,  Zwingli,  and  others — call  them  Puri- 
tans (a  name  by  which  they  came  subsequently  to  be 
known). 

Now  it  can  readily  be  understood  how  grievously  the 
Act  of  Uniformity  bore  down  upon  the  Romanists  and  the 
Puritans;  understood,  likewise,  how  impossible  it  is  to  en- 
force religion  after  this  fashion;  understood,  likewise,  how 
inevitably  men  of  conscience  and  spirit  will  rise  in  revolu- 
tion sooner  or  later ;  understood,  likewise,  how  the  rigorous 
pressing  of  this  act  caused  all  the  mischiefs — the  bad,  ugly 
doings — of  the  next  eighty  years.  But  the  queen-pope  is 
having  her  way,  and  will  have  it  whatever  the  consequences. 

The  necessary  provisions  being  now  complete,  attention 
must  be  directed  to  the  actual  running  of  the  new  machine. 

THE  MARIAN  BISHOPS  DEPOSED 

Presumably  the  bishops  and  clergy  throughout  the  realm 
are  all  of  the  Romish  faith,  being  the  appointees  of  the  late 
Queen  Mary.  Elizabeth  will  deal  first  with  the  bishops  and 
then  with  the  clergy. 

First  the  bishops:  She  summoned  them  into  her  pres- 
ence, and  made  a  speech  to  them.  How  about  Supremacy? 
How  about  Uniformity?  Do  you  intend  to  accept  the  laws 
recently  made  touching  religion?  How  can  we  accept 
Supremacy,  since  the  Pope  alone  is  God's  supreme  head  of 
the  church  on  earth?  How  can  we  accept  Uniformity, 
since  it  is  against  our  conscience,  and  since  in  parliament  we 
fought  it  step  by  step  from  first  to  last?  Well,  then,  since 
you  cannot  submit,  you  can  yield  your  bishoprics  to  better 


Bishops  Deposed  and  Clergy  Visited  179 

men.  Bishops  Pate,  Goldwell,  and  Scot,  you  may  reside 
hereafter  outside  of  England.  Archbishop  Heath,  of  York, 
you  may  remain  at  home,  only  take  care  that  you  walk  cir- 
cumspectly. Bishops  of  Durham  and  Ely,  I  will  assign  you 
to  the  care  of  the  new  archbishopric  of  Canterbury  (to  be 
appointed).  Bishops  White,  Bonner,  and  Watson,  I  think 
I  see  on  your  hands  and  garments  the  blood  of  many  inno- 
cent victims,  atrociously  murdered  in  the  reign  of  my  sister 
Mary.  I  think  the  Tower  is  the  best  place  for  you.  So  she 
deposed  and  disposed  of  fourteen  of  the  fifteen  bishops. 
Kitchen,  bishop  of  Llandaff,  was  the  only  bishop  who  had 
acquiesced  in  the  new  order  of  things,  and  he  alone  of 
them  all  was  permitted  to  retain  his  see.  Nine  sees  were 
vacant  by  death. 

Then  Elizabeth  proceeded  to  the  filling  of  the  vacant 
places.  Some  of  Edward's  bishops,  whom  Mary  had  driven 
into  exile,  declined  to  serve,  not  liking  the  popish  features 
of  the  new  Prayer-Book.  Others  reluctantly  accepted  office, 
and  with  trembling,  but  indulging  the  hope  that  changes  for 
the  better  would  soon  be  made.  These  new  bishops  conse- 
crated Matthew  Parker  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Decem- 
ber 17,  1559;  and  Parker,  in  turn,  consecrated  still  other 
bishops;  and  thus  the  episcopate  came  again  into  working 
order. 

COMMISSION  TO  VISIT  THE  CLERGY 

Elizabeth  appointed  commissioners  to  visit  the  entire 
realm,  to  depose  unworthy  priests  and  fill  their  places,  to 
correct  abuses,  and  to  enforce  Supremacy  and  Uniformity. 
Less  than  two  hundred  clergymen  were  deprived  of  their 
livings,  the  rest  consenting  to  smother  conscience  and  abide 
by  the  new  religion.  What  the  new  religion  really  was,  was 
made  still  plainer  by  Fifty-three  Injunctions  which  the  com- 


i8o  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

missioners  were  ever3rwhere  to  deliver:  Clergymen  must 
uphold  the  Act  of  Supremacy;  four  times  a  year  must 
preach  against  papal  rule  in  England;  once  a  month  must 
preach  down  pilgrimages,  beads,  and  candles;  must  utterly 
extinguish  and  destroy  all  shrines,  candlesticks,  trindels, 
rolls  of  wax,  paintings,  and  monuments  which  gender 
feigned  miracles,  idolatry,  and  superstition.  Clergymen 
must  not  haunt  alehouses  or  taverns,  or  spend  their  time 
idly  at  dice,  cards,  or  other  unlawful  games;  must  not 
admit  persons  living  in  open  sin  to  the  communion  table; 
must  not  marry  without  the  consent  of  the  bishop  and  two 
justices  of  the  peace.  Clergymen  must,  within  three  months, 
buy  a  New  Testament  for  their  own  use;  must  learn  some 
comfortable  sentences  for  the  sick ;  must  strictly  observe  the 
holy  days,  i.  e.,  the  prescribed  fasts  and  festivals.  Private 
Christians  must  attend  the  church  services  regularly;  must 
not  mock  or  make  jest  of  the  preacher;  must  give  due 
attendance  to  what  is  read  or  preached ;  must  destroy  out  of 
their  homes  all  abused  images,  and  all  pictures,  paintings, 
and  monuments  of  feigned  miracles.  Inn-holders  must  not 
sell  drink  in  the  time  of  divine  service.  Officiating  priests, 
of  whatever  rank,  must  wear  the  vestments  of  King 
Edward,  the  copes,  tippets,  and  square  caps.  School- 
masters must  exhort  their  children  to  love  the  religion  now 
allowed  by  authority.  All  the  people,  whenever  the  name 
of  Jesus  is  pronounced  in  public  worship,  must  bow  their 
heads  with  lowness  of  courtesy.  The  Fifty-three  Injunc- 
tions, of  which  these  are  briefest  samples,  must  be  read  in 
every  church  in  England  once  every  ninety  days. 

The  queen's  visitorial  commissioners,  the  majority  of 
whom  were  lay-visitors,  armed  with  the  Fifty-three  Injunc- 
tions, made  somewhat  thorough  work  of  it.  The  people, 
remembering  the  cruelties  of  "Bloody  Mary,"  helped  the 


Unijormity  jor  Papists  and  Puritans  i8i 

queen's  agents  to  demolish  the  utensils  of  idolatry  (images, 
popish  books,  altars,  banners,  painted  glass  windows,  tombs 
with  popish  inscriptions,  etc).  These  high  proceedings  were 
more  than  Elizabeth  had  bargained  for,  and  she  took  meas- 
ures to  cool  the  iconoclastic  zeal.  It  was  no  part  of  her  pur- 
pose to  alienate  her  Romish  subjects,  and  at  heart  she  herself 
was  more  a  Catholic  than  a  Protestant.  In  her  own  private 
chapel  she  still  retained  the  crucifix,  and  images  of  the 
Virgin  and  St.  John,  and  a  high  altar,  and  singing  children 
in  surplices,  and  priests  in  copes.  So  showy  was  her  ser- 
vice that  foreigners  could  not  distinguish  it  from  the  papal, 
except  that  the  English  tongue  was  in  use.  It  closely 
resembled  the  Romish  ritual,  with  the  Latin  and  the  Pope 
left  out.  (The  Pope  she  could  not  recognize  for  she  was 
the  daughter  of  Mistress  Boleyn.) 

We  turn  now  to  the  Puritans.  The  Act  of  Uniformity 
bore  harder  on  them  than  on  the  Romanists,  for  they  had 
consciences  and  convictions,  which  many  of  the  Romanists 
had  not.  Of  the  9,000  papal  church  officials,  less  than  two 
hundred  (189)  made  conscience  of  the  matter  and  yielded 
their  places,  and  of  these  less  than  fifty  were  parish  priests, 
fifteen  were  heads  of  colleges  in  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
twenty  were  college  professors,  fourteen  were  bishops,  the 
rest  were  abbots,  deans,  canons,  etc.  There  were  only  forty- 
five  ordinary  clergymen  out  of  9,000.  The  Puritans  were 
made  of  sterner  stuff.  The  Anglican  party  believed  in  the 
queen's  establishment  and  liked  it.  The  Puritan  party 
thought  it  outrageous  and  spoke  their  minds.  What  were 
the  points  in  controversy  ? 

First,  the  Anglicans  said,  the  papal  jurisdiction  ought 
not  to  obtain  in  England,  and  in  the  absence  of  a  pope  all 
ecclesiastical  authority  ought  to  lodge  in  the  sovereign.  The 
Puritans  replied,  we,  too,  reject  the  Romish  bishop,  but  it  is 


1 82  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

unreasonable  that  the  rehgion  of  a  whole  nation  should  be 
at  the  disposal  of  a  single  person,  and  that  person  a  layman 
and  a  woman. 

Secondly,  the  Anglicans  said,  the  papal  church  is  a 
true  church,  though  corrupt  in  some  points;  and  the  Pope 
is  a  true  bishop,  though  not  a  universal  bishop;  and  the 
ordinances  of  the  Church  of  Rome  are  valid,  since  along  that 
Episcopal  line  do  our  own  bishops  get  their  apostolic  suc- 
cession. The  Puritans  replied,  the  papal  church  is  a  false 
and  worthless  church;  its  pope  is  Antichrist,  its  sacraments 
are  invalid,  and  its  ministrations  are  idolatrous. 

Thirdly,  the  Anglicans  said,  the  Bible  is  the  source  and 
standard  of  doctrine,  but  Christ  has  left  the  discipline  and 
government  to  magistrates.  The  Puritans  replied,  the  Bible 
is  indeed  the  rule  of  faith,  but  it  likewise  lays  down  the  form 
of  polity — the  constitution  and  rule  of  order.  At  least 
nothing  should  bind  the  souls  of  men  which  is  not  therein 
enjoined.  If  there  is  discretionary  power,  it  is  in  church 
officials,  and  not  in  magistrates. 

Fourthly,  the  Anglicans  said,  the  pattern  of  church 
organization  is  found  in  the  first  four  or  five  Christian  cen- 
turies, rather  than  in  apostolic  times,  because  the  apostolic 
institution  is  suited  only  to  the  infant  church,  while  in  later 
times  we  find  the  church  full  grown,  having  archdeacons, 
and  archbishops,  and  all  the  other  dignitaries.  The  Puri- 
tans replied,  in  the  Bible  alone  is  the  divine  intention  laid 
down,  and  these  later  changes,  with  the  addition  of  unheard- 
of  officers  and  ordinances,  are  to  be  rejected. 

Fifthly,  the  Anglicans  said,  "indifferent  things"  (as 
rites,  ceremonies,  vestments,  and  such  like)  ought  to  be 
determined  by  the  law  of  the  magistrate;  and  the  subjects 
ought  to  obey,  and  to  do  it  cheerfully.  The  Puritans  replied, 
since  the  things  are  indifferent  they  ought  not  to  be  forced 


Anglican  and  Puritan  Controversies  183 

by  human  laws,  but  each  Christian  ought  to  be  left  free  in 
Christ.  And  yet  again,  these  rites  and  vestments,  since  their 
use  leads  to  superstition  and  popery,  are  not  indifferent,  and 
are  unlawful. 

Sixthly,  the  Anglicans  said,  it  is  necessary  to  have  a  uni- 
form public  worship.  It  is  right  to  use  the  magistrate's 
sword  to  secure  that  uniformity.  Liberty  of  conscience  and 
freedom  of  profession  are  no  man's  right.  In  England  there 
should  be  one  religion;  one  uniform  mode  of  worship;  one 
form  of  church  government  for  the  whole  nation;  and  with 
that  one  religion,  worship,  and  government  every  English- 
man should  be  made  to  comply.  The  Puritans  replied,  we 
agree  with  you  exactly  and  in  every  particular.  We  are  not 
finding  fault  with  your  force  methods;  we,  too,  believe  in 
force.  Our  complaint  is  that  you  are  forcing  a  bad  polity 
and  a  bad  ritual,  and  that  you  are  giving  to  the  magistrate 
a  power  which  does  not  belong  to  him.  It  is  not  the  business 
of  queens  and  rulers  to  fix  doctrines  and  observances.  That 
is  the  business  of  the  church  properly  constituted  and 
through  its  authorized  officials.  Afterward  let  the  magis- 
trate compel  assent.  It  is  his  duty  to  force  compliance.  The 
question  between  us  is  not  whether  religion  shall  be  forced, 
but  what  religion  shall  be  forced.  To  the  modern  doctrine 
of  soul-liberty  both  Anglicans  and  Puritans  were  total 
strangers. 

THE  SECOND  PARLIAMENT 

Elizabeth  reigned  over  England  forty-five  years — from 
1558  to  1603.  Her  first  parliament  met  in  January,  1559, 
and  passed  the  Acts  of  Supremacy  and  of  Uniformity.  Her 
second  parliament  met  three  years  later,  in  January,  1563. 
In  telling  the  story  of  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans,  we  have 
reached  this  second  meeting  of  Parliament.   "It  was  opened 


184  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

with  great  pomp — twenty  bishops  in  scarlet  robes  riding  in 
the  queen's  train."  Sermon  and  preHminaries  over,  Convo- 
cation proceeded  to  the  consideration  of  the  Forty-two 
Articles  of  Reh'gion  drawn  up  in  King  Edward's  time.  The 
forty-two  were  reduced  to  thirty-nine,  and  the  thirty-nine 
became  and  are  still  the  doctrinal  standard  of  the  Church  of 
England.  Seven  old  articles  were  omitted;  four  new  ones 
were  added ;  and  seventeen  old  ones  were  curtailed  or  ampli- 
fied. 

The  Puritans  had  had  three  years  of  established  state 
religion,  and  now  that  Parliament  was  in  session,  they  pro- 
posed to  attempt  at  least  a  rescinding  and  annulling  of  the 
more  offensive  features  of  the  Service-Book.  The  bishops 
who  had  tremblingly  accepted  office  in  the  hope  that  changes 
for  the  better  would  soon  be  made,  and  the  clergymen  who 
wanted  a  more  radical  reformation  than  the  queen  had  thus 
far  countenanced,  were  determined  that  Convocation  should 
remedy  the  evils  under  which  they  were  groaning.  Petition 
after  petition,  looking  to  the  correction  of  manifold  abuses, 
was  presented  and  vehemently  debated  and  all  but  granted. 
The  Anglican  and  Puritan  leaders  were  nearly  equal  in 
numbers,  and  some  of  the  proposed  changes  were  only 
defeated  by  the  proxy  votes  of  absentees — so  near  to  a 
triumph  did  the  radical  reformers  come  thus  early  in  the 
mighty  struggle.  But  they  were  slightly  outnumbered,  and 
Convocation  would  grant  nothing,  and  both  alteration  and 
abatement  were  refused. 

The  nation,  however,  was  in  a  different  mood,  and  the 
English  people  wanted  a  further  reform.  Everywhere 
Elizabeth's  regulations — her  service-book  and  Fifty-three 
Injunctions — were  honored  or  dishonored  as  the  laity  and 
clergy  saw  fit.  Cecil  reported  to  her  in  1564  that  the  utmost 
irregularity  everywhere  prevailed. 


Elizabeth'' s  Insane  Demand  for  Unijormity  185 

Some  keep  precisely  to  the  order  of  the  book;  some  intermix 
psahns  in  metre;  some  administer  the  communion  with  surpHce  and 
cap;  some  with  surplice  alone;  others  with  none.  Some  receive  stand- 
ing, others  kneeling,  others  sitting;  some  baptize  in  a  font,  others  in  a 
basin;  some  sign  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  others  sign  not.  Some 
minister  in  a  surplice,  others  without ;  some  with  a  square  cap,  some 
with  a  round  cap,  some  with  a  button-cap,  some  with  a  hat;  some  in 
scholars'  clothes,  some  in  others. 

Elizabeth  was  mad.  She  was  furious.  (She  often 
swore.  Perhaps  on  this  occasion  she  was  too  mad  to  swear. ) 
I  don't  say  she  swore,  but  she  lashed  her  bishops  to  the  per- 
formance of  their  duty.  Exact  conformity  we  will  have, 
and  throughout  the  realm;  and  the  bishops  shall  secure  it, 
and  without  help  from  me.  The  reformers,  foreseeing  the 
storm,  did  what  they  could  to  stay  its  violence.  The  reform- 
ing bishops  implored  the  interest  of  the  queen's  advisers  in 
their  behalf. 

Consider,  we  pray  you,  how  all  reformed  countries  have  cast  away 
popish  apparel,  and  yet  we  contend  to  keep  it  as  a  holy  relic.  Since 
we  have  forsaken  popery  as  wicked  how  can  their  apparel  become  the 
saints  and  professor  of  the  gospel?  ....  The  realm  has  a  great 
scarcity  of   teachers,   many  places  being  destitute   of   any,   and  many 

ministers    will    rather    leave    their    livings    than    comply Many 

papists  enjoy  their  livings  and  liberty  who  have  not  sworn  obedience, 
nor  do  any  part  of  their  duty  to  their  miserable  flock.  Alas !  that 
such  compulsion  should  be  used  toward  us,  and  such  great  lenity 
toward  the  papists. 

But  the  queen  could  not  be  moved.  Against  her  were  the 
noblest  men  of  the  nation,  her  ablest  state  councilors,  the 
majority  of  her  bishops,  the  heads  of  the  universities,  her 
most  godly  and  learned  divines,  the  greater  part  of  her  sub- 
jects. Conformity  she  would  have,  idolatrous  gear  and  all, 
and  at  whatever  cost.  And  what  a  cost!  What  a  chapter 
did  Queen  Elizabeth  read  into  English  history  by  her 
treatment  of  the  friends  of  truth  and  foes  of  Rome!  Depri- 


i86  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

vations,  confiscations,  mutilations,  sequestrations,  fines,  im- 
prisonments, stocks,  dungeons,  maimings,  croppings  of  ears, 
slittings  of  nostrils — everything  that  diabolical  ingenuity 
could  invent  to  compel  the  worthiest  Christians  England 
then  had,  to  act  a  lie,  to  violate  conscience,  to  dishonor  God. 
That  is  a  long  and  awful  chapter.  I  have  not  time  to  read 
it  here. 

THE  GREAT  SEPARATION  IN    1 566 

Up  to  the  period  we  have  thus  far  reached  the  Puritans 
are  all  members  of  the  Church  of  England.  The  Anglicans 
are  all  members  in  full  sympathy  with  the  prescribed  ritual. 
The  Romanists  are  all  members  dissembling  their  real  senti- 
ments and  secretly  plotting  in  the  interests  of  the  Pope — 
many  of  their  clergy  being  mass-priests  in  disguise.  And 
the  Puritans  are  all  members,  greatly  disliking  the  popish 
ceremonials,  but  content  to  abide  within  so  long  as  con- 
formity is  not  rigidly  enforced.  But  the  time  is  at  hand 
when  the  furious  cruelty  of  the  queen  will  compel  a  large 
body  of  the  Puritans  to  become  "Separatists." 

The  schism  was  brought  about  in  this  wise :  London 
being  a  hotbed  of  Puritanism,  Parker,  the  archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  whipped  on  by  Elizabeth,  determined  to  make 
an  example  of  that  city.  He  summoned  her  pastors,  in 
1566,  to  the  number  of  a  hundred,  to  meet  him  at  Lambeth, 
there  to  make  answer  "whether  they  would  promise  con- 
formity to  the  apparel  established  by  law,  and  testify  the 
same  by  subscription  of  their  hands."  On  the  day  appointed, 
in  the  presence  of  the  Court  of  High  Commission,  in  the 
midst  of  the  London  pastors,  the  archbishop  placed  a  clergy- 
man dressed  out  in  the  priestly  apparel.  Then  his  chan- 
cellor said. 

Ye  ministers  of  London,  the  council's  pleasure  is  that  strictly  ye 
keep  the  unity  of  apparel,  like  this  man  who  stands  here  canonically 


Uniformity  of  Apparel  Enforced  187 

habited  with  a  square  cap,  a  scholar's  gown  priestlike,  a  tippet,  and,  in 
the  church,  a  linen  surplice.  Ye  that  will  subscribe,  write  Volo;  those 
that  will  not  subscribe,  write  Nolo;  be  brief,  make  no  words. 

Sixty-one  were  persuaded  and  threatened  into  subscrib- 
ing; thirty-seven  refused  point  blank.  They  were  immedi- 
ately suspended  and  afterward  deprived.  The  suspended 
preachers  immediately  published  a  declaration  of  their 
reasons  for  rejecting  the  "ministering  garments  of  the 
Pope's  church;"  but  the  Court  of  High  Commission  would 
listen  to  no  defense;  and  the  archbishop,  now  that  he  had 
set  his  hand  to  the  task,  determined  to  make  thorough  work 
of  it.  His  official  position  gave  him  absolute  control 
throughout  his  whole  province,  with  the  exception  that  the 
University  of  Cambridge  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  licensing 
"twelve  ministers  yearly  to  preach  where  they  pleased  inde- 
pendently of  any  of  the  bishops."  This  privilege  had  been 
granted  by  that  infamous  pope,  Alexander  VI,  and  con- 
firmed by  Elizabeth  herself.  The  university,  in  spite  of  the 
archbishop's  furious  protestation,  issued  its  licenses  to  Puri- 
tan preachers  (twelve  a  year),  who  were  not  slow  to 
improve  their  liberty.  This  was  a  leak  Parker  could  not 
close,  but  every  other  he  shut  up  tight.  He  called  in  all 
licenses,  thus  suspending  all  clerical  functions,  and  then 
issued  new  licenses  only  to  such  as  would  bind  themselves 
to  minister  in  the  appointed  way,  vestments  and  all.  In 
every  parish  censors  and  spies  were  appointed  to  note  and 
report  any  departure  from  the  rubric.  In  this  way  he  had 
a  sure  check  on  every  Non-conformist.  Then  followed 
petitions  to  the  queen  and  to  her  council,  and  vindications 
to  the  public,  and  numerous  pamphlets.  If  the  Puritans 
could  not  preach,  they  could  print.  Then  the  Star  Chamber 
ended  this  last  recourse,  by  putting  a  gag  on  the  press.  On 
June  29,  1566,  there  appeared  the  stiff  est  kind  of  a  law 


1 88  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

against  printing,  publishing,  selling,  binding,  stitching,  own- 
ing, or  secreting  any  kind  of  a  book  or  pamphlet  which 
opposed  Uniformity  or  favored  Puritanism, 

So  the  Puritans  were  deposed  and  effectually  silenced. 
Their  churches  were  closed,  or  the  pulpits  filled  with  Angli- 
can priests.  The  friends  of  non-conformity  either  absented 
themselves  from  church  altogether,  or  came  in  after  the  ser- 
vice was  over — just  before  the  prayer  and  sermon.  Observe 
the  sacraments  with  "idolatrous  gear,"  they  would  not ;  and 
neither  the  queen  nor  Parker  could  force  them. 

At  length  some  of  the  deprived  London  pastors  and  their 
supporters  held  a  conference,  and  reached  the  conclusion 
that  since  they  could  not  have  God's  Word  and  sacraments 
without  idolatry,  it  was  their  duty  to  break  with  the  public 
churches,  and  meet  in  private  houses,  or  elsewhere,  for  the 
worship  of  God  according  to  their  consciences.  Being  in- 
formed of  these  proceedings,  the  queen,  and  the  High  Com- 
mission, and  the  bishop  of  London  resorted  to  every 
expedient  their  ingenuity  could  suggest  to  silence  the 
preachers  and  to  hold  the  laymen  to  the  parish  churches. 
But  sheriffs  and  magistrates  were  not  strong  enough  to  stay 
the  exodus  from  the  Church  of  England,  and  from  this 
period  a  large  body  of  Puritans  must  be  known  as  "Separa- 
tists." The  separation  occurred  in  1566.  There  were  now 
two  classes  of  Puritans :  Those  who  remained  inside  the 
Established  Church  and  made  shift  with  uniformity  as  best 
they  could,  and  those  who  totally  withdrew. 

The  "Separatists,"  deprived  of  their  livings,  reduced  to 
poverty,  exposed  to  the  vengeance  of  the  law,  had  now  to 
determine  after  what  order  they  would  worship  God.  Some 
thought  it  well  to  retain  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  strip- 
ping it,  in  its  ceremonies,  of  all  remainders  of  popery. 
Others  thought  it  would  be  better  to  discard  the  old  book 


Puritan  Objections  to  Papal  Customs  189 

altogether,  and  to  adopt  a  service  at  once  scriptural  and  in 
keeping  with  the  usages  of  the  reformers  on  the  Continent. 
The  latter  view  prevailed,  and  John  Calvin's  Geneva  Service- 
Book  was  adopted. 

PURITAN   OBJECTIONS  TO  THE  ESTABLISHED  ORDER 

The  question  of  the  vestments  was  the  crucial  question 
which  forced  the  "Great  Separation"  in  1566.  'Tf  surplice, 
corner-cap,  and  tippet  have  been  badges  of  idolaters  in  the 
very  act  of  their  idolatry,  what  hath  the  preacher  of  Chris- 
tian liberty,  and  the  open  rebuker  of  all  superstition,  to  do 
with  the  dregs  of  the  Romish  Beast?" 

But  their  objections  to  the  priestly  garments  were  not 
by  any  manner  of  means  the  only  objections  of  the  Puritans 
to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  This  paper  can  fittingly 
close  with  the  briefest  statement  of  the  chief  of  these. 

The  Puritans  objected  to  the  vestments — we  need  say 
no  more  of  that.  They  also  objected  to  the  sign  of  the  cross 
in  baptism.  It  has  no  Bible  warrant,  and  the  ignorant  and 
superstitious  give  it  a  mystical  virtue.  They  objected  to 
godfathers  and  godmothers — parents  and  not  strangers 
ought  to  be  pledged  to  the  religious  nurture  of  children. 
They  objected  to  confirmation.  It  is  not  scriptural.  The 
mere  ability  to  say  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  Catechism  is  not 
an  adequate  qualification.  The  laying-on  of  the  bishop's 
hands  is  a  pretended  giving  of  grace.  The  boy  may  in 
reality  be  the  worst  scapegrace  in  the  neighborhood.  They 
objected  to  kneeling  at  the  Lord's  Supper.  Christ  and  his 
apostles  reclined.  They  were  feasting  and  not  adoring.  In 
the  early  church  no  such  custom  prevailed.  It  came  in  with 
transubstantiation,  and  lost  its  meaning  when  that  heresy 
was  discarded.  They  objected  to  bowing  when  the  name  of 
Jesus  was  pronounced.     It  was  a  childish  superstition,  and 


iQo  Elizabeth  and  the  Puritans 

no  more  demanded  than  bowing  at  any  other  name  of  Deity. 
They  objected  to  the  enforced  observance  of  Saints'  Days 
as  holy  days,  while  the  Lord's  one  holy  day  was  given  up  to 
buying  and  selling,  sports  and  frivolity.  They  objected  to 
the  use  of  the  ring  in  marriage.  The  Papists  make  mar- 
riage a  sacrament,  and  bless  and  consecrate  the  ring  and 
sprinkle  it  with  holy  water.  Churches  which  have  aban- 
doned Romanism  ought  to  abandon  this  charmed  symbol 
with  all  the  rest.  They  objected  to  the  absolution  of  the 
sick.  The  priest  had  no  such  absolving  ability.  He  prac- 
ticed a  cruel  deception  on  the  patient,  and  he  was  guilty  of 
a  blasphemous  assumption  of  divine  power.  They  objected 
to  the  form  of  the  baptismal  service.  The  priest  has  no 
warrant  for  praying,  "We  give  thee  thanks  that  it  hath 
pleased  thee  to  regenerate  this  infant  with  thy  Spirit."  They 
objected  to  the  burial  service.  The  church  has  no  right  to 
lower  the  body  of  a  notoriously  wicked  man  into  the  grave 
with  the  words,  "It  hath  pleased  Almighty  God  to  take  unto 
himself  the  soul  of  this  man.  We  therefore  commit  his 
body  to  the  ground  in  sure  hope  of  the  resurrection  to  eter- 
nal life."  Today  the  English  clergyman  is  not  required  to 
say  the  burial  service  over  murderers  and  suicides,  or  over 
persons  who  are  known  to  have  been  living  in  open  adultery. 
The  rubric  of  the  prayer-book  of  1662  reads,  "Here  is  to  be 
noted  that  the  office  ensuing  is  not  to  be  used  for  any  that 
die  unbaptized,  or  excommunicate,  or  have  laid  violent  hands 
upon  themselves." 

And  so  when  they  once  got  into  the  way  of  objecting, 
they  found  at  last  that  there  was  scarcely  any  feature  of  the 
established  religion  against  which  some  complaint  could  not 
be  lodged.  They  objected  to  bishops  lifting  themselves 
above  presbyters;  to  archdeacons,  deans,  and  chapters;  to 
the  spiritual  courts  founded  on  the  canon  law  of  the  papal 


Puritan  Objections  for  Conscience^  Sake  191 

church;  to  the  coming  of  everybody  to  the  communion  table; 
to  the  reading  of  the  apocryphal  books  in  the  public  worship; 
to  the  ordaining  of  ministers  too  ignorant  to  preach;  to  hav- 
ing one  minister  in  the  possession  of  half  a  dozen  benefices; 
to  the  non-residence  of  the  holders  of  church  livings ;  to  the 
singing  of  prayers,  to  antiphonal  chanting,  to  the  use  of 
organs  and  all  other  musical  instruments.  In  one  sentence, 
they  objected  to  being  deprived  and  deposed  and  silenced, 
and  impoverished,  and  disgraced,  and  imprisoned,  and  slit 
in  the  nostrils,  and  robbed  of  their  ears,  and  left  to  die  in 
cold,  damp  dungeons  because  they  would  not  yield  their 
consciences  to  the  idolatrous  gear  and  popish  ceremonials 
of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  Administration  of 
the  Sacraments  of  the  Church  of  England. 


VII 

THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  AND  ENGLISH 
PRESBYTERIANISM 


VII 

THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  AND  ENGLISH 
PRESBYTERIANISM 

Elizabeth  reigned  nearly  half  a  century — from  1558  to 
1603.  During  this  long  reign,  Puritanism  took  on  several 
widely  different  forms.  At  first  the  questions  in  dispute 
were  on  the  surface,  but  with  time  they  became  more  and 
more  fundamental.  Incipient  Puritanism  was  concerned 
with  vestments.  In  1550,  in  the  reign  of  Edward,  Hooper 
was  the  representative  of  a  large  class  who  looked  upon  the 
prescribed  garments  as  "relics  of  popery;"  and  this  date, 
1550,  is  generally  taken  as  that  of  the  first  "public  mani- 
festation of  Puritanism  as  an  element  in  church  politics." 

This  aversion  to  the  vestments  soon  extended  to  many  of 
the  ceremonies  of  the  church.  An  ever-increasing  party 
found  fault  with  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  kneeling  at 
the  Lord's  Supper,  bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus,  the  use  of 
the  ring  in  marriage,  the  forms  employed  in  baptism,  con- 
firmation, absolution,  burial,  etc. 

When  Elizabeth's  enforcement  of  conformity  became 
unbearable,  a  number  of  Puritans  found  themselves  com- 
pelled to  worship  God  in  a  more  scriptural,  less  papal  way, 
in  private  assemblies,  apart  from  the  national  church.  These 
Puritans  became  "Separatists."  This  was  in  1566 — eight 
years  after  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne. 

The  queen  and  her  bishops  pushed  conformity  with  such 
rigor  and  cruelty  that  after  a  time  men  began  to  inquire 
whether  the  whole  structure  of  the  church  as  then  organized 
was  not  unscriptural — whether  episcopacy  had  any  warrant 
whatever  in  the  Bible — whether  the  biblical  idea  of  the 

19s 


196  Cartwright  and  English  Preshyterianism 

church  ought  not  to  supplant  the  Ehzabethan.  It  was 
Thomas  Cartwright  who  set  in  operation  the  movement  for 
the  substitution  of  a  Presbyterian  national  establishment  in 
the  place  of  the  existing  order,  A  powerful  minority  of  the 
Puritans  (remaining  still  in  the  Church  of  England),  set 
itself  the  task  of  reforming  the  church  from  within;  under- 
took to  destroy  the  English  church  and  to  build  in  its  place 
the  Church  of  Geneva.  The  national  church — the  Church  of 
England — was  still  to  remain,  only  it  was  to  be  Presby- 
terian and  not  Episcopalian.  This  change  they  proposed  to 
bring  about,  not  in  any  violent,  revolutionary  way,  but  by 
educating  the  public  mind  and  by  persuading  Parliament  to 
pass  the  necessary  laws. 

We  have  now  Puritans  who  wish  to  see  the  church 
remain  as  it  is — ruled  by  bishops — and  Puritans  who  believe 
that  episcopal  rule  is  unscriptural  and  unlawful,  and  who 
wish  to  see  the  church  ruled  by  presbyters.  Both  parties 
wish  to  see  the  church  purged  of  popish  practices  and 
errors,  and  both  parties  wish  the  church  to  be  of  a  national 
character,  and  all  English  subjects  be  forced  by  the  govern- 
ment to  yield  to  its  discipline. 

About  a  decade  after  Cartwright  began  to  make  trouble, 
and  to  get  himself  into  trouble,  still  another  ecclesiastical 
idea  was  broached,  which  gave  rise  to  still  another  Puritan 
party.  Robert  Browne  conceived  the  idea  that  Episcopalians 
and  Presbyterians  were  both  wrong;  that  the  Scriptures 
warranted  the  theories  of  neither  faction;  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  Bible,  the  government  of  the  church  is  neither 
episcopal  nor  presbyterial,  but  congregational;  that  a 
national  church,  of  whatever  sort,  was  not  countenanced  in 
the  Word  of  God;  that  the  New  Testament  knew  only  inde- 
pendent, local  churches,  subject  only  to  Christ  as  the  head; 
that  Christians  who  really  wished  a  genuine  reform  must 


Cartwright  and  the  Puritan  Movement  197 

break  connection  altogether  with  the  estabhshed  reHgion 
and  band  together  in  local  societies  modeled  after  the  Bible 
pattern. 

The  Puritans,  of  whatever  type,  saw  eye  to  eye  respect- 
ing the  papacy,  and  the  duty  of  cleansing  themselves  from 
all  defilements  of  Rome.  But  regarding  the  constitution  of 
the  church,  and  the  relation  of  the  church  to  the  civil  govern- 
ment, they  were  hopelessly  divided.  Concerning  them  all, 
Elizabeth  had  one  settled,  never-dying  purpose — to  force 
them  all  into  exact  conformity  to  her  own  established  disci- 
pline. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  examine  more  in  detail  the 
Puritan  movement  of  which  Thomas  Cartwright  is  the  most 
conspicuous   representative.      We   reserve   for   a   separate 
paper  the  ecclesiastical  scheme  of  Robert  Browne. 
Dr.  Graham  says : 

Thomas  Cartwright  is  the  greatest  name  as  thinker,  writer,  suf- 
ferer, among  the  English  Presbyterians. 

Professor  Briggs  says : 

Thomas  Cartwright  is  the  hero  of  Presbyterianism  in  England,  lay- 
ing the  foundations  of  Puritanism  broad  and  deep,  upon  which  a  great 
structure  was  subsequently  erected,  which  has  continued  till  the  pres- 
ent time.  Some  of  his  positions  have  subsequently  proved  untenable; 
but,  in  the  main,  the  Presbyterian  churches  of  Great  Britain  and 
America  still  stand  by  his  principles. 

Who  was  this  Thomas  Cartwright?  What  principles 
did  he  advocate?  In  what  way  did  his  party  seek  to  get 
these  principles  into  practical  operation?  With  what  suc- 
cess did  the  party  meet  in  this  endeavor?  This  paper  will 
give  the  outlines  of  the  story  through  the  reign  of  Elizabeth 
— from  1570  to  1603 — a  period  of  thirty-three  years.  The 
narrative  of  Puritanism  during  the  first  twelve  years  of  this 
reign  we  have  already  recited. 


198  Carlwright  and  English  Preshyterianism 

Cartwright  was  born  about  1535.  In  1547,  the  year 
Edward  ascended  the  throne,  he  entered  Cambridge  Univer- 
sity— a  lad  of  twelve  years.  During  Mary's  reign  he  was  a 
law  student  in  London.  When  Elizabeth  became  queen  he 
returned  to  Cambridge.  In  1564  the  Vestment  Contro- 
versies were  raging,  and  his  dislike  of  the  habits  was 
strengthened  and  increased  by  a  visit  he  paid  to  Geneva. 
Coming  back  to  Cambridge,  he  took  his  B.D.  degree  in 
1567,  and  was  made  Lady  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity 
in  1569.    He  was  then  about  thirty-five  years  of  age. 

At  the  university  were  three  parties :  ( i )  The  Roman- 
ists, who  said  that  the  Reformation  had  already  gone  more 
than  far  enough,  and  who  longed  for  a  retrogade  move- 
ment; (2)  The  Anglicans,  who  said  that  the  Reformation 
had  gone  just  far  enough  and  who  wished  things  to  remain 
exactly  as  they  were;  (3)  The  Puritans,  who  said  that  the 
Reformation  had  not  gone  far  enough  and  who  were  deter- 
mined it  should  go  farther.  The  Puritan  party  was  by  far 
the  most  numerous,  enthusiastic,  and  aggressive,  and  Cart- 
wright  was  their  champion  and  idol.  When  he  lectured, 
standing-room  was  at  a  premium,  and  when  he  preached  at 
St.  Mary's,  the  sexton  was  obliged  to  take  down  the  win- 
dows of  the  church  for  the  accommodation  of  the  multitudes 
that  flocked  to  hear  him.  Complaints  were  made  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  wild  views  he  was  spreading  among  the  stu- 
dents, and  of  the  destructive  onslaughts  he  was  making  on 
the  established  order.  On  one  occasion  he  inveighed  against 
the  vestments,  and  at  evening  prayers  the  fellows  and  stu- 
dents of  Trinity  appeared  without  their  surplices,  which 
greatly  scandalized  the  Anglican  party.  But  to  his  mind 
vestments  were  a  small  matter,  compared  with  graver  errors 
and  abuses.  He  had  his  say  about  pluralities  and  non-resi- 
dence,   and   called   them   "impious;"    and   about   spiritual 


His  ^^ Dangerous  and  Seditious''^  Opinions  199 

courts,  and  called  them  "damnable,  devilish,  and  detestable." 
"Poor  men  toil  and  travail,  and  princes  and  doctors  lick  up 
all.  Those  who  hold  offices  should  do  the  duties  of  those 
offices.  High  places  in  the  commonwealth  belong  to  merit, 
and  those  who  without  merit  are  intruded  into  authority  are 
thieves  and  robbers," 

Dr.  Hook,  a  bitter  foe  of  Cartwright,  has  given  a  sum- 
mary of  the  "dangerous  and  seditious"  opinions  which  he 
broached  at  this  time  in  lectures  and  sermons.  I  mention 
the  chief  of  these  opinions  by  which  the  popular  leader  of 
the  Puritans  was  "inflaming  the  minds  of  the  younger  mem- 
bers of  the  university  against  the  institutions  of  the  land." 
Cartwright  insisted  that  in  reforming  the  church  it  was 
necessary  to  reduce  all  things  to  the  apostolic  standard. 
Only  men  who  can  preach  ought  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Christian  ministry.  Popish  ordinations  are  not  valid.  Only 
preachers  ought  to  administer  the  sacraments.  Only  the 
canonical  Scriptures  ought  to  be  read  publicly  in  church. 
Burying  the  dead  is  not  exclusively  a  ministerial  office. 
Equal  reverence  is  due  to  all  parts  of  Scripture  and  to  all 
names  of  Deity;  there  is  no  reason,  therefore,  for  standing 
at  the  reading  of  the  gospel  and  bowing  at  the  name  of 
Jesus.  It  is  just  as  lawful  to  sit  at  the  Lord's  Table  as  to 
kneel  or  stand.  The  Lord's  Supper  ought  not  to  be  admin- 
istered by  women  or  laymen.  The  sign  of  the  cross  in 
baptism  is  superstitious.  To  forbid  marriages  at  any  par- 
ticular time  of  the  year  is  papistical.  The  keeping  of  Lent, 
and  fasting  on  Fridays  and  Saturdays  is  superstitious.  To 
observe  the  church  festivals  and  then  profane  the  Lord's 
Day  by  trading  and  open  markets  is  unlawful.  In  ordain- 
ing ministers,  to  say,  "Receive  thou  the  Holy  Ghost,"  is 
ridiculous  and  wicked.  Kings  and  bishops  ought  not  to  be 
anointed. 


200  Carlwright  and  English  Presbyterianism 

To  upholders  of  the  state  rehgion,  sentiments  such  as 
these  were  in  the  highest  degree  offensive,  and  they  insisted 
that  the  chancellor  of  Cambridge  should  take  some  speedy- 
course  against  Cartwright,  alleging  that  the  youth  of  the 
university,  vuho  frequented  his  lectures  in  great  numbers, 
vv^ere  "in  danger  to  be  poisoned  with  a  love  of  contention 
and  a  liking  of  novelty." 

An  effort  was  thereupon  made  "to  silence  Cartwright 
and  his  adherents,  and  to  reduce  them  to  conformity  or  expel 
them  from  the  university."  This  effort  proved  successful, 
and  late  in  1570  Cartwright  was  deprived  of  his  professor- 
ship. In  September  of  the  following  year  (1571)  his 
fellowship  at  Trinity  was  taken  from  him.  During  the  pro- 
ceedings which  resulted  m  his  expulsion  from  the  university, 
he  drew  up  his  opinions  in  six  propositions,  and  presented 
them  to  the  vice-chancellor.  These  propositions  reveal  to 
us  the  "Puritan  plan  for  reforming  the  government  and 
discipline  of  the  church."  They  are  as  follows :  (i)  That 
the  names  and  functions  of  archbishops  and  archdeacons 
ought  to  be  abolished.  (2)  That  the  offices  of  the  lawful 
ministers  of  the  church,  viz.,  bishops  and  deacons,  ought  to 
be  reduced  to  their  apostolical  institution :  bishops  to  preach 
the  word  of  God  and  pray,  and  deacons  to  be  employed  in 
taking  care  of  the  poor.  (3)  That  the  government  of  the 
church  ought  not  to  be  intrusted  to  bishops'  chancellors,  or 
the  officials  of  archdeacons;  but  every  church  ought  to  be 
governed  by  its  own  minister  and  presbyters.  (4)  That 
ministers  ought  not  to  be  at  large,  but  everyone  should  have 
the  charge  of  a  particular  congregation.  (5)  That  no  man 
ought  to  solicit,  or  to  stand  as  a  candidate  for  the  ministry. 
(6)  That  ministers  ought  not  to  be  created  by  the  sole 
authority  of  the  bishop,  but  to  be  openly  and  fairly  chosen 
by  the  people. 


Cartwright  Expelled  from  Cambridge  201 

These  opinions  were  looked  upon  as  untrue,  dangerous, 
and  seditious,  and  their  champion  was  expelled  from  Cam- 
bridge. Cartwright  betook  himself  to  Geneva.  His  friends 
deplored  his  overthrow,  but  while  losing  his  person  they 
clung  tenaciously  to  his  ideas.  His  enemies  said  he  had  once 
before  "traveled  to  Geneva  that  he  might  the  better  feed  his 
humors  with  conceited  novelties;  and  that  he  was  so  en- 
amored with  the  Genevan  discipline,  that  he  thought  all 
churches  and  congregations  were  to  be  measured  and 
squared  by  the  practice  of  it." 

It  will  be  necessary  now  to  leave  Cartwright  in  Geneva 
for  a  few  months,  while  we  take  note  of  what  is  going  on 
in  London.  Notwithstanding  the  queen's  determined  en- 
forcement of  conformity,  the  Puritan  party  steadily 
increased  in  power;  and  the  more  high-handed  and  out- 
rageous the  intolerance,  the  more  radical  and  outspoken 
became  the  opposition. 

The  men  to  whom  the  vestments  and  ceremonies  were  an 
offense,  and  whom  the  queen  and  her  bishops  were  persecut- 
ing with  Satanic  fury,  were  not  afraid  to  seek  the  redress 
of  their  wrongs  in  the  highest  court  of  the  land.  In  the 
Parliament  of  1571,  Mr.  Strickland,  one  of  their  number, 
boldly  moved  such  a  correction  of  the  Prayer-Book  as 
should  take  away  the  superstitious  remains  of  popery. 
Elizabeth  was  so  exasperated  that  she  brought  him  before 
the  council  and  forbade  him  the  Parliament  House.  His 
fellow-members,  smarting  under  the  outrage,  made  such 
violent  speeches  that  she  speedily  restored  him  to  his  place. 
In  the  same  parliament  when  a  committee  was  appointed  to 
confer  with  the  bishops  respecting  a  confession  of  faith, 
the  archbishop  said,  "Surely  you  will  refer  yourselves  wholly 
to  us  as  the  bishops  in  these  things."  Mr.  Wentworth 
replied,  "No,  by  the  faith  I  bear  to  God,  we  will  pass  nothing 


202  Cartwright  and  English  Preshyterianism 

before  we  understand  what  it  is,  for  that  were  but  to 
make  you  popes.  Make  you  popes  who  Hst,  for  we  will 
make  you  none."  The  Convocation  which  sat  with  this  par- 
liament was  under  the  queen's  thumb,  and  turning  a  deaf 
ear  to  the  supplications  in  behalf  of  the  deprived  and  im- 
prisoned ministers,  framed  new  canons  of  discipline  which 
pressed  the  Act  of  Uniformity  with  redoubled  energy.  The 
result  was  that  still  other  Puritan  leaders  were  deprived  and 
silenced.    This,  however,  only  goaded  the  party  on. 

When  Parliament  met  again  the  next  year,  1572,  the 
lord-keeper  made  a  speech,  in  the  queen's  name,  urging  a 
stiffer  enforcement  of  the  discipline  and  ceremonies,  but 
the  Commons,  in  reply  to  the  speech,  immediately  framed 
and  passed  two  bills  looking  to  the  redress  of  Puritan  griev- 
ances. This  angered  Elizabeth  and  she  demanded  the 
instant  delivery  of  the  bills,  and  forbade  any  further 
religious  legislation.  Parliament  felt  that  its  prerogative 
had  been  infringed,  and  was  open  and  bold  in  its  protesta- 
tion. For  the  speech  that  Wentworth  made  the  queen  sent 
him  to  the  Tower.  This  blow  at  the  freedom  of  Parlia- 
ment only  emboldened  and  embittered  the  Puritan  party. 
The  Cambridge  men  of  the  Cartwright  school  spoke  their 
minds  and  many  of  them  were  expelled  from  the  university. 

John  Field  and  Thomas  Wilcox,  representing  the 
London  men,  drew  up  and  themselves  presented  the  famous 
"Admonition  to  Parliament  for  the  Reformation  of  Church 
Discipline."  For  their  hardihood  the  queen  cast  them  into 
prison,  and  issued  a  proclamation  against  the  Admonition, 
and  forbade  the  Parliament  to  discuss  such  a  question.  In 
spite  of  the  bishop's  resistance,  the  Admonition  found  its 
way  into  print,  and  was  scattered  all  over  England.  The 
Puritans  were  smarting  under  the  whips  of  Good  Queen  Bess 
and  her  willing  agents,  and  their  temper  and  spirit  (as  well 


Admonition  to  Rejorm  Church  Discipline  203 

as  their  ideas)  come  into  view  in  this  document.  Let  me 
give  the  import  of  three  or  four  paragraphs :  "From  the 
true  platform  of  a  church  reformed,  let  Parliament  endeavor 
that  Christ  may  rule  and  reign  by  the  sceptre  of  his  Word 
only,  and  let  them  learn  with  perfect  hatred  to  detest  the 
religion  now  established."  Let  the  "lordly  lords,  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  suffragans,  deans,  doctors,  archdeacons, 
chancellors,  and  the  rest  of  that  proud  generation  know  that 
their  kingdom  must  come  down,  hold  they  never  so  hard." 
"A  right  ministry,  and  a  right  government  of  the  church 
according  to  the  Scriptures,"  England  does  not  enjoy. 
"Ability  to  instruct  and  a  godly  conversation"  are  needful 
to  the  ministry,  but  in  the  English  clergy  there  is  the  recep- 
tion of  "tag  and  rag,  learned  and  unlearned,  the  basest  of 
the  people."  Formerly  ministers  were  "known  by  voice, 
learning  and  doctrine,"  now  they  are  "distinguished  by  cap, 
surplice,  and  tippet  the  garments  of  the  Balaamite,  of 
popish  priests,  of  the  enemies  to  God."  "Once  ministers 
preached  the  Word  only,  now  they  read  homilies,  articles, 
injunctions,  etc."  "Once  painful,  now  gainful;  then  poor 
and  ignominious,  now  rich  and  glorious."  The  Church  of 
England  lifts  men  into  "livings  and  offices,  by  Antichrist 
devised,  but  in  Christ's  Word  forbidden,  such  as  Metropoli- 
tan, Lord's  Grace,  Lord  Bishop,  Archdeacon,  Prelate  of  the 
Garter,  High  Commissioner."  "These  Archbishops  and 
Lord  Bishops  are  drawn  out  of  the  Pope's  shop,"  and  the 
canon  law  which  guides  them  is  anti-Christian,  devilish, 
and  contrary  to  Scripture.  God's  Word  gives  them  no 
such  power,  and  the  dominion  of  one  minister  over  another 
is  "unlawful,  and  expressly  forbidden  by  Holy  Writ." 
These  many  ministers  who  cannot  make  a  sermon,  who  can 
scarcely  read  the  homilies  prescribed  for  them,  are  "empty 
feeders,  ill  workmen  to  hasten  the  Lord's  harvest,  mes- 


204  Cariwright  and  English  Preshyterianism 

sengers  that  cannot  call,  prophets  that  cannot  declare  the 
will  of  the  Lord,  unsavory  salt,  blind  guides,  sleepy  watch- 
men, untrusty  dispensers  of  God's  secrets,  evil  dividers  of 
the  Word,  weak  to  withstand  the  adversary,  not  able  to 
confute." 

And  so  the  admonishers  run  on,  page  after  page,  biting 
sharply  at  non-residence,  and  pluralities,  and  popish  apparel, 
baptism  by  women,  and  the  churching  of  women  after  child- 
birth, and  Romish  holidays,  and  wafer-cakes  at  the  com- 
munion, and  sponsors  at  baptism,  and  homilies,  and 
the  Aprocrypha,  etc.,  etc.,  and  many  other  things  found  in 
the  Prayer-Book,  that  "imperfect  book,  culled  and  picked 
out  of  the  popish  dung-hill,  that  mass  book,  full  of  abomi- 
nations." Then  the  admonishers  tell  Parliament  what  the 
true  church  is,  and  how  it  is  properly  officered  and  gov- 
erned ;  and  "conclude  by  imploring  Parliament,  for  the  sake 
of  God's  church  and  the  queen,  to  consider  and  reform  the 
abuses  pointed  out,  so  that  Antichrist  might  be  turned  out 
headlong,  and  Christ  might  reign  by  his  Word."  The 
Puritans  had  been  suffering  under  Elizabeth's  tyranny  for  a 
decade  and  a  half,  and  they  felt  that  the  time  for  soft 
speeches  had  come  to  an  end. 

About  the  time  the  Admonition  appeared,  Cart w right 
returned  to  England  from  Geneva.  He  at  once  espoused 
the  cause  of  Field  and  Wilcox,  who  were  now  in  prison, 
and  issued  a  document  entitled  "The  Second  Admonition, 
with  an  Humble  Petition  to  Both  Houses  of  Parliament  for 
Relief  against  Subscription."  Bishop  Whitgift,  his  old 
enemy,  wrote  a  reply.  Cartwright  rejoined,  and  Whitgift 
answered,  and  so  the  controversy  ran  on.  Neither  disputant 
framed  his  argument  in  courtly  terms.  Whitgift  complained 
to  Cartwright,  "If  you  should  have  written  against  the 
veriest  Papist  in  the  world,  the  vilest  person,  the  ignorantest 


Whitgijt  and  Cariwright  in  Controversy  205 

dolt,  you  could  not  have  used  a  more  spiteful  and  malicious, 
more  slanderous  and  reproachful,  more  contemptuous  and 
disdainful  kind  of  writing,  than  you  use  throughout  your 
whole  book."  Cartwright  answered  back,  "If  peace  had 
been  so  precious  to  you,  as  you  pretend,  you  would  not  have 
brought  so  many  hard  words,  bitter  reproaches,  enemy-like 
speeches,  to  double  and  treble  the  heat  of  contention."  The 
Puritans  gloried  in  their  champion  and  loaded  him  with 
gratuities,  and  Elizabeth  showed  her  appreciation  of  Whit- 
gift  by  making  him,  a  few  years  later  (1583),  archbishop 
of  Canterbury.  The  bishop  of  London  and  the  Court  of 
High  Commission  issued  an  order  for  the  arrest  of  Cart- 
wright,  but  he  concealed  himself  until  he  found  a  chance 
to  escape  out  of  the  kingdom.  We  shall  hear  of  him  again 
before  our  story  ends,  but  for  the  present  we  must  trace  the 
fortunes  of  the  Puritan  party  at  home. 

Notwithstanding  the  friendly  attitude  of  many  in  high 
official  places — of  some  of  the  bishops,  of  mayors  and 
aldermen  in  the  cities,  of  professors  in  the  universities,  of 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  of  the  chief  and  nearest 
counselors  of  Elizabeth  herself — the  Puritans  were  not 
able  to  escape  the  sword  of  the  civil  magistrate  by  which  the 
canons,  injunctions,  and  penal  laws  were  rigidly  enforced. 
All  hope  of  any  immediate  relief  through  the  action  of  Par- 
liament was  at  an  end.  Their  case  seemed  truly  desperate. 
The  English  church,  of  which  they  themselves  were  mem- 
bers, seemed  to  them  little  better  than  the  Pope's.  Their 
leaders  were  being  silenced,  imprisoned,  and  driven  into 
exile.  The  smile  of  the  queen  rested  on  the  Papists,  and  upon 
themselves  she  visited  all  her  wrath.  Their  souls  were 
horrified  at  the  tidings  that  came  to  them  from  France; 
their  fellow-Christians  butchered  in  cold  blood  by  thousands ; 
on    St.    Bartholomew's    night,    August    24,    1572,    10,000 


2o6  Cartwright  and  English  Presbyterianism 

Huguenots  massacred  in  Paris  alone,  and  70,000  in  France ; 
the  Pope  ordering  Te  Deums  to  be  sung,  and  every  Papist 
in  England  shouting  for  joy.  Therefore  Puritanism  lived. 
It  was  no  time  to  die. 

As  Froude  says  in  another  connection : 

As  the  powers  of  evil  gathered  to  destroy  the  English  church 
and  throne,  it  would  have  fared  ill  with  England  had  there  been  no  hot- 
ter blood  than  filtered  in  the  sluggish  veins  of  the  officials  of  the  Estab- 
lishment. There  was  needed  an  enthusiasm  fiercer  far  to  encounter 
the  revival  of  Catholic  fanaticism;  and  if  the  young  Puritans,  in  the 
heat  and  glow  of  their  convictions,  snapped  their  traces  and  flung  off 
their  harness,  it  was  they,  after  all,  who  saved  the  very  church  which 
attempted  to  disown  them.  But  for  the  very  Puritans  whom  the 
Establishment  endeavored  to  destroy,  the  old  religion  would  have 
come  back  on  the  country  like  a  returning  tide. 

/  It  was  not  Elizabeth  who  saved  herself  and  who  saved 
England.  She  enjo3^ed  a  victorious  reign  and  died  a  natural 
death  in  spite  of  herself.  To  the  Puritans  whom  she  hated 
she  owed  her  personal  safety  and  her  vast  achievements. 
It  was  not  by  Elizabeth  nor  by  her  High  Commission,  but 
by  Puritan  statesmen,  and  Puritan  patriots,  that  English 
liberty  was  preserved.  It  was  not  by  the  High-Church 
clergy  that  the  ecclesiastical  establishment  maintained  its 
existence,  but  by  those  very  Calvinistic  sectaries  whom  they 
silenced  and  imprisoned.  There  is  today  a  Protestant 
English  throne,  and  a  Protestant  Church  of  England  be- 
cause of  what  Puritanism  was  and  of  what  Puritanism  did. 
The  English  church  owes  its  very  life,  at  this  hour,  to  the 
men  whom  it  detested  and  sought  to  destroy. 

But  let  us  return  to  these  men.  It  was  evident  to  them 
that  Parliament,  at  this  time,  1572,  could  give  them  no  help. 
They  wanted  two  things.  They  wanted  laws  passed  that 
would  remove  the  hand  of  the  queen  and  of  the  High  Com- 
mission under  which  they  were  being  crushed;  and  they 


Presbyterian  Doctrines  and  Desires  207 

wanted  laws  passed  which  would  completely  upset  the  exist- 
ing Establishment.  They  had  a  boundless  abhorrence  of 
popery,  and  an  equally  boundless  abhorrence  of  the  national 
hierarchy.  They  believed  that  Catholicism  and  Anglicanism 
were  both  alike  from  the  devil.  They  had  been  studying 
their  Bibles,  studying  them  in  the  light  of  the  teaching  of 
John  Calvin  and  the  reformed  divines  of  the  Continent.  In 
their  Bibles  they  found  a  system  of  doctrines,  and  the 
constitution,  government,  and  discipline  of  the  Christian 
church.  They  believed  that  the  church  of  the  Bible  was  the 
Presbyterian  church — such  as  Calvin  had  set  up  in  Geneva, 
and  Knox  in  Scotland,  and  the  Huguenots  in  France.  They 
called  on  Parliament  to  demolish  the  Church  of  England, 
Episcopalian  in  form,  and  to  erect  in  its  place  the  Church 
of  England,  Presbyterian  in  form.  They  counted  it  a  sin  to 
tolerate  the  Catholic  worship,  and  likewise  a  sin  to  tolerate 
the  Anglican  worship.  There  ought  to  be  a  national  church 
and  worship,  and  these  ought  to  be  Presbyterian,  because  the 
Presbyterian  alone  is  scriptural.  The  true  Bible  church 
once  established,  laws  ought  to  be  enacted  forcing  every 
English  subject  into  strict  conformity.  Could  the  Presby- 
terians have  triumphed,  they  would  have  whipped  every 
Episcopalian  into  line  with  the  same  severity  that  was  now 
being  exercised  toward  themselves.  In  a  later  reign  they 
did  triumph  for  a  brief  period,  as  we  shall  see  before  our 
term's  study  ends,  but  for  the  present  they  must  yield  and 
suffer.  Yield,  did  I  say  ?  Not  exactly  that,  for  no  genuine 
Puritan  ever  knew  what  it  was  to  yield.  But  they  must 
change  their  tactics,  and  accomplish  by  indirection  what  they 
cannot  directly  gain.  A  systematic  organization  of  their 
numbers  and  forces  will  enable  them  to  live  on  in  spite  of 
persecution,  and  to  insure  their  perpetuity  and  growth. 

About  five  miles  from  London,  on  the  banks  of  the 


2o8  Cartwright  and  English  Preshyterianism 

Thames,  was  the  Httle  village  of  Wandsworth.  In  this 
village,  on  November  20,  1572,  fifteen  ministers  of  London 
and  its  vicinity,  and  a  company  of  laymen,  secretly  met  for 
the  purpose  of  forming  a  Presbytery.  They  elected  eleven 
elders  and  defined  their  duties.  This  was  the  first  fully 
constituted  Presbyterian  church  in  England.  All  the  mem- 
bers were  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  they 
proposed  to  continue  so.  Their  idea  was  to  form  an 
imperium  in  imperio,  and  to  govern  their  actions  as  far  as 
possible  by  Presbyterian  rules  while  holding  membership  in 
an  Episcopalian  church.  They  hoped  that  the  inside  church 
would  grow  strong  enough  some  time  to  destroy  the  out- 
side one.  All  this  was  done  with  the  utmost  secrecy.  Organi- 
zations similar  to  this  were  secretly  formed  in  different 
parts  of  England.  A  synod  was  held  in  London  in  1584, 
at  which  a  Book  of  Discipline,  prepared  by  Walter  Travers 
and  Thomas  Cartwright,  was  adopted.  By  1590  more  than 
five  hundred  Church  of  England  ministers,  in  many  counties 
in  England,  had  signed  this  Presbyterian  Book  of  Discipline. 
This  secret  movement  began  in  1572.  Very  soon  the 
bishop  of  London  "got  wind  of  it,"  though  he  could  not 
single  out  by  name  the  guilty  parties.  He  sounded  the 
alarm  to  the  Court  of  High  Commission,  and  the  pious 
queen  issued  a  proclamation  that  the  Act  of  Uniformity 
should  be  executed  with  redoubled  energy.  Every  wheel  of 
the  ecclesiastical  machinery  was  set  to  running  to  crush  out 
the  life  of  the  offending  Puritans.  The  jails  rapidly  filled 
with  non-conforming  Christians.  The  queen's  fury  only 
increased  the  evil.     The  bishop  of  London  wrote : 

People  resort  to  the  suffering  Puritans  in  prison,  as  in  popery 
they  were  wont  to  run  on  pilgrimage.  Aldermen  and  wealthy  citizens 
give  them  great  and  stout  countenance,  and  persuade  others  to  do  the 
like. 


The  Exercises  or  Prophesyings  209 

In  this  connection  ought  to  be  mentioned  the  "exercises," 
as  they  were  called,  or  "prophesyings."  So  many  of  the  best 
preachers  in  the  kingdom  had  been  deprived  and  silenced, 
and  so  many  of  the  pulpits  were  either  empty,  or  filled  with 
mass-priests  in  disguise,  or  with  men  too  ignorant  to  preach, 
and  so  deplorable  was  the  moral  condition  of  the  realm  in 
consequence,  that  the  Puritans  sought  to  remedy  these  evils 
by  religious  services  apart  from  the  regular  order  of  wor- 
ship. The  movement  had  its  beginning,  in  1571,  in  North- 
ampton. The  account  is  a  long  one,  but  Froude  gives  it  in 
epitome : 

Under  the  combined  management  of  the  bishop  of  Peterborough 
and  the  mayor  and  corporation  of  the  city,  the  laity  and  clergy  of 
Northamptonshire  worked  harmoniously  together.  On  Sundays  and 
holy  days  the  usual  services  were  read  from  the  Prayer-Book.  In  the 
morning  there  was  a  sermon;  in  the  afternoon,  when  prayers  were 
over  the  youth  were  instructed  in  Calvin's  catechism.  On  Tuesdays 
and  Thursdays,  a  lecture  of  Scripture  was  read,  with  extracts  from  the 
liturgy,  and  afterward  there  was  a  general  meeting  of  the  congrega- 
tion, with  the  mayor  in  the  chair,  for  the  correction  of  discord, 
blasphemy,  whoredom,  drunkenness,  or  offenses  against  religion.  On 
Saturdays,  the  ministers  of  the  different  neighborhoods  assembled 
to  compare  opinions  and  discuss  difficult  texts;  and  once  a  quarter 
all  the  clergy  of  the  county  met  for  mutual  survey  of  their  own 
general  behavior.  Offenses,  given  or  taken,  were  mentioned,  explana- 
tions heard,  and  reproof  administered  when  necessary. 

Beginning  in  1571  at  Northampton,  these  associations, 
with  various  modifications,  sprang  up  in  many  parts  of 
England.  By  1574  they  had  taken  on  the  form  of  an  exe- 
getical  club,  and  ministers'  and  laymen's  conference.  These 
"exercises"  were  called  "prophesyings"  from  that  passage 
in  I  Cor.  14:31,  "Ye  may  all  prophesy  one  by  one,  that  all 
may  learn,  and  all  may  be  comforted."  Lord  Bacon  gives 
this  description : 


2IO  Cartwrighl  and  English  Presbyterianism 

The  ministers  within  a  precinct  did  meet  upon  a  week  day  in 
some  principal  town  where  there  was  some  ancient  grave  minister  that 
was  president,  and  an  auditory  admitted  of  gentlemen  and  other 
persons  of  leisure.  Then  every  minister  successively,  beginning  with 
the  youngest,  did  handle  one  and  the  same  part  of  Scripture,  spending 
severally  some  quarter  of  an  hour  or  better,  and  in  the  whole  some 
two  hours : — and  so,  the  exercise  being  begun  and  concluded  with 
prayer,  and  the  president  giving  a  text  for  the  next  meeting,  the 
assembly  was  dissolved.  And  this  was,  as  I  take  it,  a  fortnight's 
exercise;  which,  in  my  opinion,  was  the  best  way  to  frame  and  train 
up  preachers  to  handle  the  Word  of  God  as  it  ought  to  be  handled, 
that  hath  been  practiced. 

By  1574  these  "prophesyings"  had  become  extremely 
popular.  The  Puritans  were  enjoying  a  little  Bible  exercise 
outside  the  Prayer-Book,  and  the  more  liberal  bishops  were 
giving  the  movement  countenance.  There  were  no  less 
than  ten  bishops  who  took  this  view.  They  looked  upon  it 
as  a  "devotional  meeting  for  the  edification  of  the  clergy 
and  the  better  understanding  of  the  Scriptures."  Elizabeth 
did  not  take  that  view  of  it.  She  looked  upon  the  "prophesy- 
ings" "as  dangerous  gatherings  of  disaffected  spirits." 
When  they  reached  the  diocese  of  Norwich — the  very  head- 
quarters of  non-conformity — she  determined  to  act.  She 
commanded  the  Bishop  of  Norwich  to  suppress  the  "exer- 
cises." Almost  at  the  same  time,  he  received  a  letter  from 
four  of  the  queen's  privy  councilors  encouraging  him  to  do 
nothing  of  the  kind.  Parker  was  archbishop  and  he  told 
Elizabeth  that  these  conferences  were  nothing  better  than 
seminaries  of  Puritanism,  and  that  they  made  the  people  so 
inquisitive  that  they  would  not  submit  to  the  orders  of  their 
superiors.  Soon  after,  Parker  died  (May  17,  1575),  and 
was  succeeded  by  Grindal  (February  15,  1576),  who  had  a 
decided  liking  for  the  "prophesyings."  Grindal  had  been 
bishop  of  London  and  afterward  archbishop  of  York.     In 


Archbishop  GrindaVs  Fifteen  Articles  211 

the  North  there  was  a  good  deal  of  Romanism  but  very 
httle  Puritanism.  Grindal  had  proved  himself  a  very  good 
disciplinarian.  He  had  curbed  the  old  Romish  superstitions, 
and  he  had  put  a  stop  to  the  disgraceful  proceedings  that 
had  been  going  on  in  the  churches.  For  example,  in  1570, 
he  had  prohibited  peddlers  from  selling  their  wares  in  the 
church  porches  in  time  of  service,  and  made  a  strict  require- 
ment that  "no  lords  of  misrule,  or  summer  lords  or  ladies, 
or  any  disguised  persons,  morrice-dancers  and  others,  should 
come  irreverently  into  church,  or  play  any  unseemly  parts, 
with  scoffs,  jests,  wanton  gestures,  or  ribald  talk,  in  the 
time  of  divine  service."  Lord  Burleigh  (Cecil)  thought  he 
would  make  a  good  primate,  and  on  the  death  of  Parker 
induced  Elizabeth  to  appoint  him  to  the  see  of  Canterbury. 
But  Grindal  had  been  one  of  the  exiles  in  the  reign  of 
''Bloody  Mary,"  and  on  the  Continent  he  had  been  tinctured 
with  Puritanism.  As  soon  as  he  became  archbishop,  being 
now  the  president  of  Convocation,  he  laid  before  that  body 
Fifteen  Articles.  One  of  these  articles  provided  that  mar- 
riages might  be  celebrated  at  any  season  of  the  year.  An- 
other provided  that  only  a  lawful  minister  should  solemnize 
marriages.  Another  provided  that  "unlearned  ministers" 
should  not  be  promoted.  Another  provided  that  clergymen 
should  possess  themselves  of  the  New  Testament  in  Latin 
and  English.  These  articles  had  a  pretty  strong  Puritan 
look. 

The  very  year  in  which  Grindal  was  made  archbishop 
he  made  a  metropolitan  visitation,  in  which  he  discovered 
that  there  was  a  great  scarcity  of  efficient  preachers.  He 
saw  plainly  the  pressing  need  of  a  great  increase  in  the  num- 
ber and  a  great  advance  in  the  character  of  the  clergy.  He 
was  firmly  convinced  that  the  quickest  and  readiest  means 
to  accomplish  this  end  was  the  "prophesyings." 


212  Cartwright  and  English  Presbyterianism 

In  1576  the  queen  instructed  her  archbishop  to  see  that 
these  "prophesyings"  were  everywhere  stopped.  Grindal 
refused  to  obey  and  wrote  her  a  sharp  remonstrance.  She 
called  him  to  court  where  a  stormy  scene  awaited  him.  She 
told  him  there  was  too  much  preaching  in  England;  that 
four  or  five  preachers  were  quite  sufficient  for  a  county; 
and  that  as  for  the  "prophesyings,"  she  would  have  no  more 
of  them.  But  Grindal  could  not  be  moved.  He  said,  "I 
cannot  with  safe  conscience,  and  without  the  offense  of  the 
majesty  of  God,  give  my  consent  to  the  suppressing  of  these 
exercises.  I  choose  rather  to  offend  your  earthly  majesty 
than  the  heavenly  majesty  of  God."  Elizabeth  called  a 
meeting  of  the  Star  Chamber  to  deprive  the  archbishop,  but 
they  prevailed  on  her  to  make  it  milder,  and  he  was 
sequestered  for  five  years  for  his  disobedience. 

Then  the  queen  had  a  letter  sent  to  all  the  bishops : 

We  hear  to  our  great  grief  that  in  sundry  parts  of  our  realm 
there  are  no  small  number  of  persons  presuming  to  be  teachers  and 
preachers  of  the  church  who  do  daily  devise  new  rites  and  ceremonies, 
as  well  by  their  unordinate  preaching,  readings,  and  ministering  the 
sacraments,  as  by  procuring  unlawfully  of  assemblies  of  great  number 
of  our  people,  out  of  their  ordinary  parishes,  to  be  hearers  of  their 
disputations  and  new  devised  opinions,  upon  points  of  divinity  far 
unmeet  for  vulgar  people,  which  manner  of  innovation  they  in  some 
places  term  "prophesyings,"  and  in  other  places  "exercises;"  by  which 
assemblies  persons  are  taken  away  from  their  ordinary  work,  and 
divisions  are  encouraged  and  sober  people  are  offended. 

The  bishops  are  therefore  charged  to  cause  these  "exer- 
cises" to  cease,  and  if  any  continue  to  use  them,  to  commit 
them  to  prison.  For  several  years  the  queen  found  the  tide 
too  strong  against  her,  and,  storm  as  she  would,  the 
"prophesyings"  continued.  Not  until  Grindal  died,  and 
Whitgift  became  archbishop  did  she  find  the  agent  after  her 
own  heart  who  would  go  the  lengths  her  majesty's  fury 


The  Purpose  of  Presbyterian  Puritans  213 

dictated.  Whitgift  died  the  year  after  Elizabeth,  and  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  her  reign,  for  twenty  years,  he  and  she 
did  all  that  diabolical  ingenuity  could  invent  to  destroy  Pres- 
byterians and  Independents  and  Familists  and  Anabaptists, 
and  every  class  of  Non-conformists.  Notwithstanding  all, 
Puritanism  steadily  increased  to  the  end  of  the  reign. 

Today  we  are  specially  concerned  with  Presbyterian 
Puritans.    I  quote  from  Wakeman  : 

Theirs  was  a  deliberate  attempt  to  introduce  the  Genevan  Dis- 
cipline under  cover  of  the  formularies  of  the  church.  Their  purpose 
was  to  erect  a  system  of  Presbyterianism  inside  the  pale  of  the  Estab- 
lishment. By  rendering  an  outward  conformity  to  the  law  in  order  to 
avoid  persecution,  under  cover  of  that  conformity  they  sought  to 
establish  a  separate  disciplinary  machinery  of  their  own  which  should 
supersede  that  of  the  church.  Their  Presbyterian  friends  in  Scotland, 
Geneva,  and  Holland,  etc.,  sympathized  with,  and  encouraged  them  in 
this.  It  was  in  1580  that  Cartwright  and  Travers  published  their  Book 
of  Discipline,  in  which  the  Genevan  system  was  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  England,  and  which  was  intended  to  form  an  authorized  scheme  of 
church  government  for  the  Puritan  party.  In  1582  the  system  was 
formally  adopted  by  a  secret  synod  in  London  and  was  put  in  full 
working  order.  A  board  of  Puritan  clergy  was  formed  in  each  dis- 
trict, called  a  "classis"  or  conference,  and  provision  was  made  for  the 
consolidation  of  these  classes  into  a  national  assembly  which  should 
meet  in  London  at  the  time  of  the  session  of  Parliament.  In  each 
parish  was  to  be  formed  a  consistory,  which  should  include  lay  mem- 
bers elected  for  that  purpose;  but  the  real  direction  of  the  movement 
lay  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  classis. 

To  it  appertained  the  power  of  deciding  in  each  particular  case  how 
much  or  how  little  of  the  ceremonial  required  by  law  the  minister 
might  be  permitted  to  use,  and  to  it  was  intrusted  the  still  more 
important  task  of  deciding  on  the  qualifications  of  candidates  for  the 
ministry  and  of  giving  them  their  "call."  When  the  classis  had  thus 
conferred  Presbyterian  orders  upon  a  man,  he  was  directed  to  apply 
to  the  bishop  for  the  legal  rite.  In  this  way  a  complete  church  system 
on  the  Presbyterian  model  was  formed,  which  was  to  work  in 
obedience  to  the  church  system  already  established,  by  treating  it  as 


214  Cartwright  and  English  Preshyterianism 

a  mere  legal  appendage,  until  the  time  came  when,  undermined  from 
below,  it  might  be  successfully  and  entirely  overthrown. 

The  scheme  worked  admirably.  Intelhgent  and  deter- 
mined men  had  it  in  hand,  and  they  honeycombed  the 
Episcopal  establishment  through  and  through.  It  cost  them 
unspeakable  hardships  and  sufferings,  but  they  were  living 
for  a  cause  which  they  believed  to  be  the  cause  of  God. 
Cartwright  was  a  prime  mover  and  leading  spirit  in  all  this 
dangerous  enterprise.  Most  of  his  time  he  passed  in  prison 
and  exile,  hated  and  hounded  by  Whitgift,  the  archbishop, 
but  by  his  fertile  brain,  his  ready  pen,  and  his  courageous 
sufferings,  he  made  himself  the  acknowledged  head  and 
glorious  hero  of  English  Preshyterianism.  For  more  than 
thirty  years  that  strong  man  braved  the  fury  of  the  queen 
and  her  metropolitan. 

Whatever  judgment  may  be  formed  of  Cartwright  (and 
there  are  those  who  laud  and  those  who  execrate  him),  it 
was  an  honor,  a  real  honor,  to  have  for  enemies  in  the 
matter  of  religion  such  persons  as  the  queen  and  her  arch- 
bishop. A  man  is  as  well  known  by  the  foes  he  makes  as  by 
the  friends  he  keeps,  and,  so  judged,  Cartwright  was  a  great 
and  good  man.  Passing  the  queen  by  in  silence  (we  have 
learned  to  know  her  already,  and  pretty  well),  let  me  quote 
this  excellent  and  truthful  estimate  of  Whitgift  by  Neal: 

The  character  of  Whitgift's  administration  appears  plain  on  the 
page  of  history.  It  embodied  the  worst  passions  of  an  intolerant 
state  priest,  and  stood  out  in  the  history  of  Protestant  persecution 
as  worthy  of  special  reprobation.  It  knew  no  mercy — it  exercised  no 
compassion.  It  had  but  one  object,  and  that  it  pursued  without  com- 
punction and  remorse.  The  most  conscientious  of  the  queen's  sub- 
jects were  mingled  with  the  vilest  of  their  race.  Whatever  was 
noble  in  character,  elevated  in  sentiment,  or  pure  and  ethereal  in  devo- 
tion, was  confounded  with  the  baser  elements  of  society,  and  pro- 
scribed and  punished  as  an  offense  to  God  and  treason  against  the 


The  Character  oj  Whitgiffs  Administration  215 

state.  The  legal  institutions  of  the  kingdom  were  converted  into 
means  of  oppression,  and  the  dark  recesses  of  the  prisons  resounded 
at  once  with  the  sighs  and  prayers  of  the  men  of  whom  the  world 
was  not  worthy.  It  is  in  vain  to  defend  the  administration  of 
Whitgift  on  the  ground  of  the  excesses  of  the  Puritans.  Those 
excesses  were  provoked  by  his  cruelty.  They  grew  out  of  govern- 
ment, the  unmitigated  rigour  of  which  exasperated  the  spirits  and 
soured  the  temper  of  his  opponents.  Neither  can  the  archbishop  be 
justified  on  the  plea  that  he  acted  on  the  commands  of  the  queen. 
His  servility  was,  indeed,  contemptible,  but  his  ecclesiastical  measures 
had  their  origin  in  his  own  breast.  He  was  the  queen's  adviser,  to 
whose  judgment  she  deferred,  and  of  whose  hearty  concurrence  in 
every  measure  of  severity  and  intolerance  she  was  fully  assured. 
Several  of  her  counsellors  were  opposed  to  his  severity,  "but  secure 
of  the  queen's  support,  Whitgift  relented  not  a  jot  of  his  resolution, 
and  went  far  greater  lengths  than  Parker  had  ever  ventured,  or 
perhaps  had  desired  to  proceed."  His  administration  involved  an 
immense  sacrifice  of  life.  It  is  easy  to  number  the  martyrs  whom 
popery  led  to  the  stake,  but  no  other  than  an  omniscient  being  is 
competent  to  reveal  the  secrets  of  his  dark  and  loathsome  prison- 
houses.  Many  of  his  victims  entered  with  a  robust  frame  and  a 
vigorous  spirit,  but  the  one  was  wasted  by  disease  and  the  other 
broken  down  by  oppression,  till  the  last  enemy  released  them  from 
the  tyrant's  grasp,  and  ushered  them  into  the  presence  of  the  King  of 
kings.  The  Protestant  Church  of  England  is  deeply  steeped  with  the 
blood  of  the  saints.  The  martyrdom  it  inflicted  was  less  violent, 
and  less  calculated  to  shock  the  public  mind,  but  it  was  not  a  jot  less 
cruel  and  wicked  than  that  which  Bonner  and  Gardiner  practiced. 

At  the  dawn  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  the  month  of 
March,  1603,  there  died  a  woman  in  her  seventieth  year. 
She  Hstened  long  to  the  prayers  of  her  archbishop  and  when 
he  rose  from  his  knees,  she  motioned  him  to  continue.  As 
the  end  approached  she  was  "moody  and  wayward," 
"gloomy  and  suspicious,"  so  sad  and  heavy  in  heart  that  she 
"fetched  not  so  few  as  forty  or  fifty  great  sighs." 

In  the  following  December,  1603,  there  died  a  man  in 
his  sixty-ninth  year.     After  spending  two  hours  upon  his 


2i6  Cartwright  and  English  Presbyterianism 

knees  in  private  prayer,  he  declared  to  his  wife  that  he  had 
found  unutterable  joy  and  comfort,  and  that  God  had  given 
him  a  glimpse  of  heaven  before  his  departure. 

In  the  following  February,  1604,  there  died  a  man  in  his 
seventy-fifth  year.  He  had  been  stricken  suddenly  with 
paralysis,  and  his  last  inarticulate  words  were,  in  Latin, 
"For  the  Church  of  God." 

These  three,  within  the  space  of  a  year,  Elizabeth  the 
Anglo-Catholic  queen,  Cartwright  the  Presbyterian  divine, 
and  Whitgift  the  Episcopal  primate,  passed  into  the  presence 
of  Him  of  whom  it  is  said,  "Justice  and  judgment  are  the 
habitation  of  his  throne." 


VIII 

ROBERT  BROWNE  AND  ENGLISH 
INDEPENDENCY 


VIII 

ROBERT  BROWNE  AND  ENGLISH 
INDEPENDENCY  ^ 

Robert,  son  of  Anthony  and  Dorothy  Browne,  was  born 
in  Rutlandshire  about  1550.  The  exact  date  cannot  be 
determined  with  certainty.  He  came  of  good  stock,  being 
a  relative  of  William  Cecil,  Lord  Burleigh  (Burghley), 
secretary  of  state  under  Henry  VIII,  and  again  under 
Elizabeth,  made  lord  treasurer  in  1572,  and,  according  to 
Hume,  "the  most  vigilant,  active,  and  prudent  minister  ever 
known  in  England."  Browne's  grandfather,  Francis, 
received  from  Henry  VIII,  by  special  charter,  confirmed  by 
act  of  Parliament,  the  privilege  of  remaining  covered  in  the 
presence  of  the  king  and  of  all  lords  spiritual  and  temporal 
in  the  realm. 

Of  Browne's  boyhood  and  youth  no  account  has  been 
preserved.  In  1570,  being  then  about  twenty  years  of  age, 
he  went  to  Cambridge  University,  entering  Corpus  Christi 
College.     It  is  not  certain  that  he  attained  his  bachelor's 

^  Review  of  The  True  Story  of  Robert  Browne,  by  Champlin  Bur- 
rage,  in  The  American  Journal  of  Theology,  April,  1907  :  "Mr.  Burrage  is 
a  young  scholar  whose  researches  have  been  rewarded  by  the  discovery  of 
three  manuscript  writings  of  Robert  Browne,  the  father  of  modern  Con- 
gregationalism :  'Browne's  Letter  to  His  Uncle,'  'An  Answer  to  Mr. 
Cartwright's  Letters,'  and  'A  Reproofe  of  Certain  Schismatical  Persons.' 
These  'finds'  furnish  conclusive  proof  that  the  claim  that  Browne  made 
the  church  independent  of  the  magistrate  is  not  well  founded.  In  the  light 
of  the  recently  recovered  writings.  Dr.  Dexter's  classical  chapter  on 
Browne  in  Congregationalism  needs  supplementing  and  correcting  at  many 
points.  This  task  Mr.  Burrage  has  successfully  performed  in  A  New 
Year's  Gift,  edited  and  published  in  1904,  and  in  The  True  Story  of 
Robert  Browne,  which  appeared  in  1906. — Eri  B.  Hulbert." 

219 


220  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

degree.  While  at  Cambridge  he  became,  in  1571,  domestic 
chaplain  to  the  duke  of  Norfolk.  At  this  early  period  he 
was  expressing  sentiments  which  displeased  the  authorities 
and  which  caused  his  citation  before  the  ecclesiastical  com- 
mission.   The  duke  came  to  his  rescue. 

We  next  catch  sight  of  him  teaching  "scholars  for  about 
the  space  of  three  years,"  probably  at  Southwark,  and  also 
giving  Sunday  talks  to  people  gathered  in  a  gravel-pit  in 
Islington,  near  London.  Who  these  people  were  whom 
young  Browne  was  "lecturing"  and  what  he  was  lecturing 
them  about,  the  writers  of  that  day  have  not  informed  us. 
We  know  that  a  little  after  this,  information  was  sent  to  the 
government  that  the  brick-kilns  near  Islington  were  the 
chief  shelters  of  the  rogues  in  and  about  London;  and 
that  the  informers  would  not  hesitate  to  class  as  rogues  those 
who  stood  opposed  to  state-church  worship  and  discipline; 
and  we  may  conjecture  that  Browne  was  talking  to  them 
of  those  church  questions  which  were  agitating  his  own  mind 
and  heart. 

In  1578-79  the  plague  raged  in  many  parts  of  England, 
sweeping  away  thousands  of  victims.  It  was  during  this 
plague  that  Browne  gave  up  his  school,  and  returned  to  his 
father's  home.  After  the  plague,  he  repaired  again  to  Cam- 
bridge, and  became  a  member  of  the  family  of  Rev.  Richard 
Greenham  (Dry  Drayton),  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  under  whom  he  studied  theology.  The  rule  of  the 
church  was  that  no  one  should  undertake  to  preach  "without 
leave  and  special  word  from  the  bishop."  In  the  face  of  this 
rule,  however,  Mr.  Greenham  encouraged  his  pupil  to  im- 
prove his  gifts  in  public  open  discourse.  The  country  people 
liked  Browne's  sermons;  and  the  Cambridge  city  people,  in 
Benet  Church,  liked  them  quite  as  well.  His  fresh  enthu- 
siastic way  of  presenting  truth  caught  the  ear  and  favor  of 


Browne's  New  Views  Forming  221 

both  illiterate  and  cultivated  hearers.  Even  thus  early  the 
far-seeing  ones  detected  something  in  the  matter  of  his 
preaching  "which  would  prove  the  disturbance  of  the  church, 
if  not  seasonably  prevented." 

Just  at  this  time,  he  was  called  to  a  Cambridge  pulpit  in 
which  he  preached,  likewise  discharging  the  pastoral  duties 
of  the  parish,  "for  about  half  a  year."  Then  "he  sent  back 
the  money  they  would  have  given  him,  and  also  gave  them 
warning  of  his  departure."  A  great  upheaval  was  taking 
place  in  his  mind  regarding  the  constitution  of  the  existing 
church,  the  prevailing  methods  of  religious  reform,  and 
especially  the  place  and  prerogatives  assigned  to  the  bishops. 
"To  be  authorized  of  them,  to  be  sworn,  to  subscribe,  to  be 
ordained  and  receive  their  licensing"  seemed  to  him  to  be 
unnecessary,  to  be  un-Christian,  to  be  positively  wicked. 
So  when  his  brother  procured  the  bishop's  seals  for  him,  he 
would  not  have  them,  indignantly  threw  them  away,  "refus- 
ing utterly  to  avail  of  any  such  helps  for  entrance  upon  the 
ministry  of  the  Word;"  and  forthwith  began  to  cry  aloud 
in  Cambridge  and  elsewhere,  with  utmost  vehemence, 
"against  the  calling  and  authorizing  of  preachers  by 
bishops,"  and  to  proclaim  to  everybody  that  he  himself  was 
preaching,  "not  as  caring  for,  or  leaning  upon,  the  bishop's 
authority,  but  only  to  satisfy  his  duty  and  conscience." 

By  this  time  he  had  reached  that  point  where  the  domi- 
nant passion  of  his  soul  was  to  see  a  genuine  spiritual  refor- 
mation in  England;  that  point,  too,  where  it  was  perfectly 
plain  to  him  that  the  state-church  establishment,  with  its 
ecclesiastical  machinery  and  embracing  the  entire  popula- 
tion, was  the  chief  obstacle  in  the  way  of  such  reformation. 
His  mind  at  last  reached  and  rested  in  this  result,  viz. : 
"That  the  kingdom  of  God  was  not  to  be  begun  by  whole 
parishes,  but  rather  by  the  worthiest,  were  they  never  so 


222  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

few."  This  struggle  of  mind  and  soul  laid  him  on  a  bed  of 
sickness,  and  brought  him  very  near  to  death.  While  lying 
ill,  the  bishop  and  council  inhibited  him  from  further 
preaching. 

When  he  recovered,  "he  took  counsel  still"  (these  are  his 
words)  "and  had  no  rest,  what  he  might  do  for  the  name 
and  kingdom  of  God."  He  often  complained  of  those  evil 
days  and  with  many  tears  sought  where  to  find  the  righteous, 
who  glorified  God,  with  whom  he  "might  live  and  rejoice 
together,  that  they  put  away  abominations."  Presently  he 
learned  that  some  of  those  "righteous,"  whom  he  was  seek- 
ing with  many  tears,  were  to  be  found  in  Norfolk  County. 
So,  as  he  says,  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  take  his  voyage  to 
them;  first,  because  he  considered 

if  there  were  not  only  faults  but  also  open  and  abominable  wicked- 
ness in  any  parish  or  company,  and  they  would  not  or  could  not 
redress  them,  but  were  held  in  bondage  by  anti-Christian  power,  as 
were  those  parishes  in  Cambridge  by  the  bishops;  then  every  true 
Christian  was  to  leave  such  parishes,  and  to  seek  the  church  of  God 
wheresoever. 

Also, 

if  any  be  forced  by  laws,  penalties  and  persecution,  as  in  those 
parishes,  to  join  with  any  such  persons  either  in  the  sacraments,  or 
in  the  service  and  worship  of  God,  they  ought  utterly  to  forsake  them 
and  avoid  such  wickedness. 

Accordingly  Browne  betook  himself  to  Norfolk,  finding 
his  way  to  the  city  of  Norwich.  This  was  probably  in  the 
year  1580,  in  the  twenty-second  year  of  Elizabeth's  reign, 
when  Browne  was  about  thirty  years  of  age.  Here  he 
boarded  with  one  Robert  Harrison,  whom  he  had  known 
as  a  fellow-student  at  Corpus  Christi,  and  whom  he  soon 
won  to  his  way  of  thinking.  Others  were  also  won ;  and  the 
outcome  of  it  all  may  be  stated  in  the  words  of  Dexter : 


The  First  Congregational  Church  223 

It  is  very  clear  that  here  at  Norwich,  following  the  track  of 
thought  which  he  had  long  been  elaborating,  he  thoroughly  dis- 
covered and  restated  the  original  congregational  way,  in  all  its  sim- 
plicity and  symmetry.  And  here,  in  this  or  the  following  year 
[i.e.,  1580  or  1581],  by  his  prompting  and  under  his  guidance,  was 
formed  the  first  church  in  modern  days  which  was  intelligently,  and 
as  one  might  say,  philosophically,  congregational  in  its  platform  and 
processes;    he   becoming  its    pastor. 

It  is  worth  while  to  put  a  pin  in  there :  The  first  Congre- 
gational church  of  modern  times,  according  to  Dexter,  was 
founded  in  Norwich  in  1580  or  1581  by  Robert  Browne. 

Leading  English  Congregationalists,  however,  writing 
since  Dr.  Dexter's  book  was  published,  question  the  histori- 
cal accuracy  of  his  statements.  Some  maintain  that  the  first 
modern  Congregational  church  had  its  origin  in  the  Bride- 
well Prison  in  London  in  1567,  1568,  or  1569,  twelve  or 
fourteen  years  before  Browne  instituted  his  church  at  Nor- 
wich. These  were  the  circumstances:  In  June,  1567,  a 
company  assembled  in  Plumber's  Hall,  in  London,  to  cele- 
brate a  wedding.  These  people  were  non-conforming  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  of  England.  In  meeting  at  Plumber's 
Hall  they  had  in  mind  a  religious  service  as  much  as  a 
nuptial  ceremony.  They  dared  to  worship  God  without  the 
use  of  the  Prayer-Book.  Elizabeth's  agents  surprised  them 
in  their  conventicle  and  dragged  them  off  to  prison.  All 
English  prisons  at  that  time  were  loathsome  dungeons,  dark, 
damp,  and  foul,  reeking  with  filth  and  vermin,  and  sure  to 
bring  their  inmates  to  an  untimely  grave.  Into  this  Bride- 
well prison  these  worshipers  were  hurried  and  huddled  and 
there  they  remained  for  two  years.  Some  time  during  these 
two  years  there  in  the  prison  they  organized  themselves  into 
a  Congregational  church.  They  elected  Richard  Fitz  as 
pastor  and  one  Bowman  as  deacon.  They  took  upon  them- 
selves the  functions  of  a  Christian  church.    They  chose  from 


224  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

among  their  own  number  the  brethren  who  should  serve  as 
officers,  and  they  undertook  the  exercises  of  disciphne  on 
their  own  members.  Before  their  prison  days  were  over 
their  pastor  and  deacon  both  died  of  jail  fever.  Those  who 
survived  and  finally  got  out  of  Elizabeth's  horrible  jail  still 
held  together  as  a  church  and  were  wont  to  meet  for  worship 
in  London,  in  Southwark  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Thames. 
Now  this  seems  to  have  been  a  regularly  instituted  Congre- 
gational church.  Even  Dexter  admits  that  "they  surely  were 
near  the  verge  of  the  true  system,"  though  he  adds,  *T  fail 
to  find  in  the  simple  doctrines  they  left  behind  them  any 
system  whatsoever." 

The  man  intent  on  setting  up  Congregational  churches  in 
the  face  of  Acts  of  Conformity  and  High  Commissions  and 
reigning  Episcopacy,  and  a  determined  queen,  will  not  have 
an  altogether  delightsome  time  of  it.  News  comes  to  us 
next  that  our  friend  Browne  is  safely  tucked  away  in  jail. 
We  get  the  intelligence  through  the  good  bishop  of  Norwich, 
who  is  writing  to  Lord  Treasurer  Burghley.  In  his  letter, 
under  date  April  19,  1581,  he  says  that 

the  said  party  [Browne]  had  been  lately  apprehended,  on  complaint 
of  many  godly  preachers,  for  delivering  unto  the  people  corrupt 
and  contentious  doctrine;  and  that  his  arrogant  spirit  of  reproof  was 
something  to  be  marveled  at;  the  man  being  also  to  be  feared  lest  if 
he  were  at  liberty  he  should  seduce  the  vulgar  sort  of  people,  who 
greatly  depended  on  him,  assembling  themselves  together  to  the 
number  of  an  hundred  at  a  time  in  private  houses  and  conventicle 
to  hear  him,  not  without  danger  of  some  evil  event. 

Two  days  later  (April  21)  Lord  Burghley  replied  to  the 
bishop  suggesting  that  his  relative  was  moved  by  "zeal  rather 
than  malice,"  and  that  he  ought  to  be  "charitably  conferred 
with  and  reformed."  It  looks  as  though  Browne  was  there- 
upon set  at  liberty,  and  fell  forthwith  into  those  evil  practices 


Removal  from  Norwich  to  Zealand  225 

which  so  disturbed  the  peace  and  dignity  of  the  church; 
for  soon  after  (August  2)  we  find  the  bishop  again  writ- 
ing to  Burghley  imploring  his  help  in  the  suppression  of  this 
troublesome  young  man  who  was  preaching  "strange  and 
dangerous  doctrines  in  his  diocese."  According  to  Fuller, 
the  lord  treasurer  again  helped  his  relative  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  bishop  of  Norwich,  helped  him  into  the  hands  of  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Grindal),  helped  him  again  out 
of  the  archbishop's  hands,  and  in  all  these  trials  proved  his 
"powerful  and  efficient  friend." 

The  members  of  the  little  Congregational  church  at  Nor- 
wich were  having  a  sorry  time  of  it,  as  well  as  their  pastor. 
They  began  to  debate  the  question  of  removal.  Where 
should  they  go?  Beyond  the  English  borders  they  could 
escape  the  churchly  care  of  the  bishop  and  of  the  "many 
godly  preachers."  Scotland  was  thought  of,  so  were  Jersey 
and  Guernsey.  At  last  they  decided  upon  Zealand;  and  to 
that  country  they  went  in  a  body,  probably  near  the  close  of 
the  year  1581.  They  found  a  hospitable  shelter  in  the  town 
of  Middelberg.  Dutch  strangers  would  give  them  what 
English  friends  denied.  Here  they  set  up  their  little  Congre- 
gational church,  and,  with  none  to  hinder  them,  began  the 
experiment  of  self-government  under  the  lordship  of  Christ 
alone.  The  measure  of  success  which  attended  their  effort 
will  appear  in  the  sequel. 

Browne  and  Harrison  began  at  once  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  help  of  the  printing-press,  Browne  issuing  at  least 
three  treatises  and  Harrison  two,  which  were  sent  back  to 
England  and  secretly  circulated,  against  which  Elizabeth 
issued  a  special  proclamation,  and  for  dispersing  which  at 
least  two  men  (Copping  and  Thacker)  were  hanged.  In 
these  treatises  they  vindicate  themselves  from  the  false 
charges  which  had  been  preferred  against  them;  they  exhibit 


226  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

their  reasons  for  believing  that  a  true  spiritual  reformation 
can  never  be  accomplished  under  the  existing  state-church 
arrangement;  and  they  explain  what  they  believe  to  be  the 
divinely  appointed  model  for  the  Christian  church — a  model 
which  it  is  the  duty  and  blessed  privilege  of  all  true  disciples 
to  follow.  It  is  from  these  writings  that  we  learn  what 
Brownism  truly  was. 

Before  stating  the  principles  which  Browne  advocated 
and  which  he  strove  to  embody  and  illustrate  in  the  church 
which  he  gathered  and  of  which  he  became  pastor,  it  may 
be  well  to  follow  this  strange  man  to  the  end  of  his  career. 
The  church  at  Middelberg  was  so  broken  by  internal  dis- 
tractions (we  shall  allude  to  these  troubles  before  we  con- 
clude) that  Browne  and  "four  or  five  Englishmen  with  their 
wives  and  families"  resolved  to  "pull  out,"  and  try  their  for- 
tunes in  Scotland.  The  church  had  then  existed  in  Middel- 
berg about  two  years.  Browne  led  this  minority  first  to 
Dundee,  thence  to  St.  Andrews,  and  thence  to  Edinburgh, 
where  they  arrived  January  9,  1584.  They  began  at  once 
to  scatter  their  books  and  their  notions;  and,  in  turn,  the 
Scotch  Presbyterians,  the  very  next  Tuesday,  had  them 
before  the  session  of  the  kirk  of  Edinburgh,  On  the  follow- 
ing Tuesday  they  had  a  further  hearing,  at  which  time 
Browne  alleged  that  "the  whole  discipline  of  Scotland  was 
amiss;  that  he  and  his  company  were  not  subject  to  it;  and 
therefore  he  would  appeal  from  the  kirk  to  the  magistrate." 
Accordingly  he  was  put  safely  away  in  the  common  jail  until 
the  heresies  in  his  books  could  be  detected,  properly  cata- 
logued, and  put  in  shape  for  the  court  and  the  king. 

When  finally  released  from  custody  he  left  Edinburgh, 
and  wandered  through  the  principal  towns  of  Scotland,  tak- 
ing note  of  the  moral  state  of  the  kirk  and  of  the  progress 
of   reformation.     That  he  was  not   favorably   impressed 


Removal  to  Scotland,  Thence  to  London  227 

appears  from  his  writing  afterward,  "I  have  seen  all  manner 
of  wickedness  to  abound  much  more  in  their  best  places  in 
Scotland,  than  in  our  worser  places  in  England."  His 
observation  of  the  practical  working  of  the  Presbyterian 
plan  convinced  him  that  it  was  no  better  than  the  Episco- 
palian plan  for  purposes  of  pure  spiritual  reformation,  if 
indeed  it  was  as  good.  He  declared  that  by  experience  he 
had  found  that  instead  of  one  pope  they  had  a  thousand, 
and  that  instead  of  a  few  lord  bishops  in  name  they  had  a 
thousand  lordly  tyrants  in  deed. 

The  movements  of  Browne  at  this  period  can  be  traced 
by  the  following  dates:  In  November  or  December,  1583, 
Browne  and  his  little  company  quit  Middelberg.   In  January, 

1584,  they  arrive  at  Edinburgh.  In  July,  1584,  Lord 
Burghley,  in  a  letter  to  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Whit- 
gift),  conjectures  that  Browne  is  then  in  London.  The 
facts  seem  to  be  that  after  a  few  months  stay  in  Scotland, 
he  wandered  back  to  England;  made  his  way  to  his  old 
haunts  in  and  near  the  metropolis;  disseminated  his  obnox- 
ious opinions  by  preaching  in  private  conventicles  and  by 
circulating  his  writings;  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  who  convicted  and  imprisoned  him; 
got  out  of  jail  through  the  intercession  of  Lord  Burghley, 
who  sent  him  home  to  his  father,  sending  a  letter,  October, 

1585,  asking  the  old  man  to  treat  his  son  in  a  kind  and 
temperate  manner.  Another  letter  from  Burghley  (dated 
February,  1586)  reveals  the  fact  that  the  son  had  proved  in- 
corrigible, and  that  the  old  man  is  seeking  permission  to  set 
him  adrift.  Fuller  says  that  "his  good  old  father  resolved  to 
own  him  for  his  son  no  longer  than  his  son  owned  the 
Church  of  England  for  his  mother,  and  Browne,  choosing 
rather  to  part  with  his  aged  sire  than  his  new  schism,  he 
was  discharged  the  family."    Browne  was  removed  to  Stam- 


228  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

ford,  going  soon  thereafter  to  Northampton,  where  his 
pestiferous  teachings  speedily  brought  him  a  citation  from 
the  bishop  of  Peterborough,  which  he  disregarded,  in  con- 
sequence of  which  the  bishop  "excommunicated  him  for 
contempt."  Browne  was  then  thirty-five  or  thirty-six  years 
old.    He  had  not  yet  Hved  half  his  days. 

At  this  point,  there  came  a  turn,  outwardly  at  least,  in 
his  career.  He  sought  and  obtained  readmission  to  the 
church  (through  Burghley).  He  asked  appointment  to  the 
mastership  of  the  grammar  school  at  St.  Olave's,  Southwark. 
The  request  was  granted  on  these  six  conditions :  ( i )  To 
keep  no  conventicles;  (2)  to  go  to  church  sermons  with  the 
children;  (3)  to  renounce  his  errors  and  conform  to  church 
doctrine;  (4)  to  use  in  the  school  the  church  catechism;  (5) 
himself  to  take  parish-church  communion;  (6)  and  lastly 
to  resign  the  mastership  whenever  he  could  not  abide  these 
articles.  Browne  bound  himself,  and  held  the  position  for 
five  years. 

He  resigned  the  school  to  become  rector  of  a  little 
country  parish  (which  a  hundred  years  later  had  only  eight- 
een families)  at  Achurch  cum  Thorpe,  near  Northampton. 
In  this  obscure  corner  he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days — 
for  more  than  forty  years  a  spectator,  but  not  a  participant 
in  the  tremendous  political  and  ecclesiastical  convulsions  and 
revolutions  of  which  England  was  the  scene.  There,  hid 
away  in  that  little  hamlet,  keeping  the  petty  records  of 
parish  births  and  baptisms  and  marriages  and  burials,  he 
heard  of  the  plots  to  assassinate  the  queen,  the  inquisitions 
of  the  High  Commission,  Drake's  exploits  on  the  high  seas, 
the  execution  of  Mary  Stuart,  the  gathering  and  destruction 
of  the  Spanish  Armada,  the  death  of  Elizabeth,  the  acces- 
sion of  James  I,  the  Millenary  Petition,  the  Hampton  Court 
Conference,  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  the  quarrels  of  king  and 


Browne's  Seclusion  and  Death  229 

Parliament,  the  distresses  of  the  Puritans,  the  driving  of  the 
Separatists  out  of  England,  the  going  of  John  Robinson  to 
Leyden,  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth,  the  death 
of  James,  the  accession  of  Charles,  the  dissolvings  of  parlia- 
ments, the  Petition  of  Right,  the  murder  of  Buckingham, 
the  horrible  despotism  of  Strafford  and  Laud,  the  Puritan 
emigration  to  New  England — all  these  things  Browne  must 
have  heard  of  there  in  his  corner,  but  for  forty  years  he 
seems  to  have  said  and  done  nothing.    Then  the  end  came. 

Fuller  tells  the  story:  The  constable  of  the  parish  re- 
quired of  him  the  payment  of  a  rate.  Browne  in  passion 
struck  the  constable,  who  in  turn  caused  Browne's  arrest. 
To  the  prison  he  was  carried  in  a  cart  on  a  feather-bed, 
being  too  injfirm  (above  eighty)  to  walk,  and  too  unwieldy  to 
ride,  and  not  apparently  having  a  friend  in  the  world.  As 
Fuller  says,  "To  Northampton  jail  he  is  sent;  where,  soon 
after,  he  sickened,  died,  and  was  buried  in  a  neighboring 
church-yard."  This  must  have  been  at  least  his  thirty-third 
prison  experience ;  for,  many  years  before,  he  declared  that 
he  had  been  committed  to  thirty-two  prisons,  in  some  of 
which  he  could  not  see  his  hand  at  noonday. 

I  wish  now  to  consider  three  questions :  ( i )  What  did 
this  man  believe?  What  were  the  opinions  which  thirty- 
two  times  shut  him  into  the  dark  and  loathsome  dungeons? 

(2)  What  caused  the  collapse  of  the  Middelberg  church? 

(3)  What  kind  of  a  man  was  Robert  Browne? 

I.      HIS  OPINIONS 

Of  course,  for  his  views  we  are  for  the  most  part  depend- 
ent on  his  own  writings,  several  of  which  have  come  down 
to  us. 

First,  he  maintained  that  a  true  reformation  could  not 
proceed  from  the  Church  of  England.    Why?    Because  that 


230  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

church  was  itself  inwardly  corrupt,  and  itself  needed  to  be 
reformed.  Moral  fitness  was  not  needful  in  order  to  mem- 
bership. It  included  all  sorts  of  folks.  Everybody  belonged 
to  the  church.  God's  very  elect  and  the  most  depraved  and 
abandoned  sat  side  by  side  at  the  Lord's  Supper.  Saints, 
seducers,  infidels,  and  cut-throats  were  all  on  a  par;  all 
bound  under  the  Act  of  Conformity;  the  good  forced  to 
join  in  service  and  worship  with  the  bad;  all  exclusion  of  the 
bad  a  thing  unknown  and  impossible.  By  no  stretch  of 
imagination  could  such  a  mongrel  and  polluted  establish- 
ment be  accounted  the  true  church  of  God,  or  help  to  bring 
in  a  genuine  reformation.  Then,  again,  this  corrupt  church 
was  outwardly  in  subjection  to  a  set  of  bishops  and  priests 
who  approved  these  open  abominations  and  did  their  utmost 
to  perpetuate  them.  The  Church  of  England  is  the  Beast, 
and  these  bishops  are  the  riders.  "The  church  stoopeth  as 
an  ass  for  them  to  get  upon."  "The  whip  of  their  spiritual 
courts,  and  the  spurs  of  their  laws,  and  the  bridle  of  their 
power,  do  make  the  church  to  carry  them."  This  corruption 
and  this  subjection  render  the  church  powerless  to  reform 
the  nation. 

Secondly,  Browne  taught  that  the  true  reformation  could 
not  be  brought  about  by  the  state.  Why  ?  Because  religion 
and  the  church  are  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  civil 
magistrate. 

The  magistrate's  commandment  must  not  be  a  rule  unto  me  of  this 

and   that  duty,  but   as   I   see  it  agree  with  the  word   of   God 

The    magistrates    may    do    nothing    concerning   the    church,    but    only 

civilly They  have  no  ecclesiastical  authority  at  all,  but  only  as 

any  other  Christians,   if  so  be  they  be  Christians If  then  the 

magistrate  will  command  the  soldier  to  be  a  minister  or  the  preacher 

to  give   over  his  calling,   they  ought   not   to   obey   him In  all 

things  we  must  first  look  what  is  the  Lord's  will;  and  this  freedom 


Browne's  Congregational  Views  231 

have  all  Christians,  and  if  the  magistrates  pursue  and  imprison  and 
persecute,  the  blood  of  the  righteous  shall  come  upon  them. 

Thirdly,  Cartwright's  Puritan-Presbyterian  plan  of 
reformation  seemed  to  Browne  quite  as  objectionable  and 
valueless  as  the  Church  of  England  plan.  Let  England  adopt 
what  the  Cartwright  Presbyterians  proposed,  and  there 
would  still  remain  the  parish  churches  made  up  of  the  entire 
baptized  population  (a  corrupt  body,  of  course)  ;  there 
would  still  remain  the  organic  unity  between  all  the  congre- 
gations (which  would  compel  all  churches  to  keep  step 
together  in  the  matter  of  reform,  the  better  churches  hin- 
dered by  the  laggards)  ;  there  would  still  remain  the  con- 
nection with  the  state,  the  civil  powers  enforcing  conformity 
and  uniformity  with  all  the  bloody  vigor  which  now  pre- 
vailed, no  man  in  all  the  realm  being  left  free  to  seek  the 
Lord's  will,  or  to  obey  his  conscience. 

Fourthly,  in  view  of  these  facts,  it  became  clear  as  noon- 
day to  Browne's  mind  that  it  was  the  duty  of  true  Christians 
to  draw  out  of  the  parish  churches;  to  disjoin  themselves 
utterly  from  the  defiled  and  defiling  National  Establishment ; 
and  to  gather  themselves  together  into  separate  congrega- 
tions. To  remain  in  the  state  church,  made  of  a  godless 
membership,  and  ruled  over  "by  popish  prelates  and  hire- 
ling preachers,"  was  to  uphold  these  anti-Christian  abomi- 
nations, and  to  renounce  the  Christ  who  saved  them. 
Separation  was  the  call  of  God. 

Fifthly,  in  Browne's  view,  a  company  of  true  believers, 
thus  renouncing  the  Church  of  England,  and  rightly  coming 
together,  by  and  in  thus  coming  together  made  themselves 
a  true  church  of  Christ,  to  whose  government  alone  they 
were  subject.    He  says : 

The  church,  planted  or  gathered,  is  a  company  or  number  of 
Christians  or  believers,  who  by  a  willing  covenant,  made  with  their 


232  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

God,  are  under  the  government  of  God  and  Christ,  and  keep  his  laws 
in  one  holy  communion. 

Sixthly,  this  company  of  true  beHevers  come  together 
rightly  by  entering  into  a  public  willing  covenant  with  God 
and  with  each  other,    Browne  explains : 

How  must  the  churches  be  first  planted  and  gathered  under  one 
kind  of  government?  First,  by  a  covenant  and  condition  made  on 
God's  behalf.  Secondly,  by  a  covenant  and  condition  made  on  our 
behalf.  Thirdly,  by  using  the  sacrament  of  Baptism  to  seal  these 
conditions   and   covenants. 

On  God's  side,  this  covenant  binds  him  to  be  our  God 
and  Savior  (we  remaining  faithful)  ;  on  our  side,  this  cove- 
nant binds  us  to  obey  him  in  all  things,  and  to  lead  a  godly 
Christian  life.  Browne  tells  how  he  went  to  work  to  organ- 
ize his  church  at  Norwich : 

A  covenant  was  made,  and  their  mutual  consent  was  given  to  hold 
together.  There  were  certain  points  proved  unto  them  by  the  Scrip- 
tures, all  which  being  particularly  rehearsed  unto  them  with  exhorta- 
tion, they  agreed  upon  them,  and  pronounced  their  agreement  to  each 
thing  particuarly,  saying,  "To  this  we  give  our  consent."  First, 
therefore,  they  gave  their  consent  to  join  themselves  to  the  Lord, 
in  one  covenant  and  fellowship  together,  and  to  keep  and  seek  agree- 
ment under  his  laws  and  government;  and  therefore  did  utterly  flee 
and  avoid  such  like  disorders  and  wickedness  as  was  mentioned 
before. 

Seventhly,  in  Browne's  conception,  all  church  au- 
thority resides  solely  in  Jesus  Christ.  He  alone  is  king. 
He  rules  his  church,  not  through  bishops  and  queens  and 
magistrates,  but  through  the  individual  members  thereof. 
Each  member  is  his  regent,  to  obey  his  will,  and  guided  by 
his  spirit,  to  aid  in  the  salvation  and  welfare  of  others.  Thus 
Browne's  pure  monarchy  becomes  a  practical  working 
scheme  in  and  through  a  pure  democracy. 

Eighthly,  according  to  Brown,  the  officers  of  a  church 


Officers  and  Discipline  oj  the  Church  233 

are:  (i)  a  pastor,  for  exhorting,  and  guiding  accordingly; 
(2)  a  teacher,  for  teaching  doctrine  especially  and  guiding 
accordingly;  (3)  one  or  more  elders  for  oversight  and 
counsel ;  (4)  one  or  more  relievers,  to  gather  and  bestow  the 
gifts  of  the  church;  (5)  one  or  more  widows  to  visit  the 
afflicted  and  distressed.  Browne  seems  to  have  given  each 
church  two  ministers,  one  to  exhort  and  one  to  indoctrinate. 
His  elders  were  men  of  age  and  wisdom  to  help  the  ministers 
in  an  advisory  way.  His  relievers  and  elders  discharged  the 
functions  imposed  now-a-days  in  Baptist  churches  on  the 
deacons  and  advisory  committee.  His  elders  had  no  ruling 
power,  as  in  the  Presbyterian  scheme.  His  widows  dis- 
charged the  duties  assigned  in  the  New  Testament  to 
deaconesses. 

Ninthly,  in  Browne's  church,  the  Lord's  Supper  was  the 
seal  of  the  "growing  together"  of  the  members  "in  one 
body,  whereof  Christ  is  the  head."  Careful  self-examination 
is  enjoined,  "lest  the  guiltiness  of  our  secret  sins  and  private 
offenses,  do  make  us  unworthy  receivers."  The  church 
must  separate  itself  from  those  "unmeet  to  receive,"  and 
must  redress  "all  open  offenses  and  faultings." 

Tenthly,  the  members  pledged  themselves  to  mutual 
watch  care.  Faults  were  to  be  looked  for  and  reported. 
The  church,  in  their  esteem,  was  not  a  "mutual  admiration 
society,"  but  a  kind  of  inquisitorial  club,  the  more  severe 
the  minuteness,  the  nearer  perfection. 

Lastly,  between  churches  constituted  as  above  described, 
there  subsist  relations  of  mutual  friendship  and  helpfulness. 
Over  each  local  church  presides  Christ,  the  head,  to  whom 
alone  obedience  is  due,  so  that  as  regards  neighboring 
churches  each  church  is  absolutely  free  and  independent. 
But  since  Christ  is  one,  and  since  the  several  churches  are 
one  in  Christ,  they  must  be  one  with  each  other.    This  one- 


234  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

ness  is  of  sympathy  and  fellowship  and  counsel  and  aid,  and 
not  a  oneness  of  dictation  and  supremacy  and  control. 

Browne's  germ  idea,  out  of  which  by  degrees  grew  all 
his  other  ideas,  was  that  Christ  is  the  present  and  perfect 
Savior  of  each  single  soul,  to  whom  each  soul  owes  undivided 
fealty,  it  being  the  supreme  duty  of  that  soul  everywhere 
and  in  every  way  to  seek  the  greatest  possible  Christ- 
likeness.  To  get  this  idea,  and  those  springing  from  it,  into 
shape,  to  get  them  realized  and  embodied  in  an  actual 
church,  cost  Browne  many  a  terrific  struggle,  laid  him  on  a 
sickbed  more  than  once,  and  more  than  once  brought  him  to 
death's  door.  We  say  nothing  of  the  thirty-two  prisons  into 
which  his  opinions  cast  him. 

I  am  obliged  to  stop  here  and  raise  two  questions.  They 
deserve  a  lengthened  treatment,  but  in  this  connection  I  have 
time  for  only  a  passing  allusion.  First,  is  it  historically  true 
that  Robert  Browne  believed  in  the  entire  separation  of 
church  and  state?  Secondly,  was  Robert  Browne  the  first 
to  announce  and  practice  the  congregational  form  of  church 
government?  Both  questions  must  be  answered  in  the 
negative. 

Influenced  by  passages  such  as  I  have  just  quoted,  Dr. 
Henry  M.  Dexter  concluded  that 

Robert  Browne  is  entitled  to  the  proud  pre-eminence  of  having  been  the 
first  writer  clearly  to  state  and  defend  in  the  English  tongue  the 
true — and  now  accepted — doctrine  of  the  relation  of  the  magistrate  to 
the  church. 

Douglas  Campbell  also  says  that  Robert  Browne  was  the 
first  Englishman  to  take  up  and  proclaim  boldly  that  the  civil 
government  had  no  concern  with  religious  matters,  and  to 
proclaim  the  doctrine  of  a  separation  between  church  and 
state.  Dexter  and  Campbell  are  both  wrong.  Wallace  St. 
John,  in  his  doctor's  thesis  made  in  this  department  on  The 


Dexler^s  Claim  for  Broivne  Disproved  235 

Contest  for  Liberty  of  Conscience  in  England,  shows  con- 
clusively from  Browne's  writings  that  he  could  not  possibly 
have  held  such  a  doctrine.  And  more  recently  still  Cham- 
plin  Burrage  has  discovered  a  letter  written  by  Browne  in 
1588  to  his  uncle  in  which  he  actually  labors  to  show  that  it 
is  the  right  and  duty  of  magistrates  to  meddle  with  church 
affairs.  This  letter  Burrage  has  published  under  the  title, 
A  Nezv  Year's  Gift.    I  quote  only  two  sentences: 

If  then  it  be  demanded  who  shall  call  and  consecrate  ministers, 
excommunicate  and  put  down  false  teachers  and  bad  fellows,  and 
judge  in  a  number  of  ecclesiastical  causes,  let  the  Word  of  God 
answer,  which  appointed  the  chiefest  and  most  difficult  matters  to  be 

judged  by  them  of  chiefest  authority  and  gifts If  it  be  asked 

who  be  of  chiefest  gifts  or  right  to  have  chiefest  authority,  I  answer 
that  the  civil  magistrates  have  their  right  in  all  causes  to  judge  and 
sit  in  order,  and  it  is  intolerable  presumption  for  particular  persons 
to  scan  of  every  magistrate's  chiefest  gifts  or  authority,  or  to  deny 
them  the  power  of  judging  ecclesiastical  causes. 

Doubtless  Browne  was  far  in  advance  of  Anglicans 
and  Presbyterians  in  his  views  of  the  relations  of  church  and 
state,  but  his  own  vision  regarding  these  things  was  far  from 
clear.     At  most  he  could  only  see  men  as  trees  walking. 

Secondly,  it  is  not  historically  true  that  Browne  was  the 
first  to  discover  and  proclaim  the  congregational  form  of 
church  government.  Dutch  Anabaptists  by  the  thousand, 
residing  in  England,  held  the  doctrines  of  church  independ- 
ency and  separation  from  the  state  long  before  Browne  made 
a  stir  in  the  world.    Hear  what  Campbell  says : 

At  this  time  more  than  half  the  population  of  Norwich  was  com- 
posed of  refugees  from  the  Netherlands,  engaged  in  manufactures. 
They  had  a  church  of  their  own  and  were  independent  of  the  bishops. 
Among  them  were  many  Anabaptists.  When  now  we  find  Browne 
after  his  settlement  among  these  people  of  new  ideas,  preaching  to  his 
English  congregation  the  doctrine  of  separation  between  church  and 
state,  it  seems  needless  to  inquire  whence  it  was  derived. 


236  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

The  truth  of  history  is  that  before  Browne's  day  there 
were  Dutch  and  Enghsh  Anabaptists  who  held  the  full  and 
complete  idea  of  religious  liberty,  a  truth  to  which  Browne 
never  reached  in  its  fulness,  and  who  also  held  the  form  of 
church  polity  known  as  Congregationalism,  and  from  whom 
Browne  himself  probably  derived  his  own  conceptions  in  their 
rudimentary  form.  The  superlative  glory  of  Browne  is  that 
he  worked  out  the  Congregational  scheme  in  a  more  orderly, 
coherent,  and  complete  manner  than  had  ever  been  done 
before.  Browne's  Congregationalism  as  he  elaborated  it, 
barring  the  interference  of  magistrates,  could  be  accepted 
today,  almost  without  alteration,  by  any  modern  church  of 
the  congregational  order.  This  is  something  truly  wonder- 
ful for  that  day.  The  definiteness  and  completeness  of  his 
conception  entitle  him  to  the  highest  praise. 

II.   CAUSE  OF  THE  MIDDELBERG  COLLAPSE 

Our  next  question  is.  Why  did  the  Middelberg  church 
collapse?  In  1580  or  1581,  Browne,  then  about  thirty  years 
of  age,  organized  at  Norwich  his  ideal  church,  after  the 
congregational  model  which  I  have  explained.  The  state- 
church  authorities  made  it  so  hot  for  the  pastor  and  his  flock 
that,  late  in  1581,  they  migrated  in  a  body  to  Zealand,  and 
took  up  their  abode  at  Middelberg.  Here  the  church  led  a 
troubled  life  for  two  years,  and  then  fell  to  pieces.  Was 
this  because  Browne's  church  organization  was  inherently 
bad  and  weak?  Not  at  all;  rather,  just  the  reverse.  It  was 
in  fact  too  good  a  scheme  for  such  poorly  prepared  and 
unpracticed  hands  to  work — just  as  my  watch  would  soon 
fail  of  its  purpose  in  the  hands  of  Congo  natives  who  never 
saw  a  watch  before,  and  who  must  themselves  learn  how  to 
wind,  set,  and  regulate  it.  The  watch  is  likely  to  be  ruined 
in  the  learning.    This  little  band  of  exiled  disciples  believed 


Cause  of  the  Church  Collapse  237 

that  one  chief  design  and  benefit  of  the  church  was  to  pro- 
mote the  growth  of  all  by  detecting  and  correcting  the 
faults  of  each.  They  bound  themselves  in  covenant  to  help 
each  other  in  this  way.  They  were  so  conscientious  in  keep- 
ing this  part  of  their  covenant  that  they  soon  got  to  pulling 
each  other's  hair.  They  had  regularly  appointed  seasons 
for  making  known  to  the  church  the  slips  and  shortcomings 
v/hich  each  member  had  detected  in  his  neighbor.  These 
seasons  grew  to  be  very  lively.  In  Browne's  language, 
"There  fell  out  questions,  offenses,  and  taking  of  parts." 
It  was  not  long  before  the  "contention  grew  so  far,  that 
some  fell  from  questions  to  evil  speeches  and  slanders,  from 
slanders  to  open  defiance  and  railings."  The  church  resolved 
itself  into  a  kind  of  Ladies'  Benevolent  Society  to  gossip, 
and  tattle,  and  peddle  out  petty  meannesses.  After  a  while 
they  all  got  ashamed  of  themselves  and  in  "an  open  meeting 
everyone  confessed  their  faults,"  and  resolved  "to  make  a 
fair  show  that  they  would  deal  no  more  so  foolishly."  But 
it  did  not  last  long.  Soon  there  are  "whisperings,  back- 
bitings,  and  murmurings  privily,"  and  these  grow  into 
"openly  grievous  threats,  taunts,  revilings  and  false  accusa- 
tions." They  find  fault  with  Browne  himself,  "for  having 
condemned  his  sister  Aliens  as  a  reprobate."  Browne's 
wife  gets  censorious  toward  somebody,  and  there  is  "much 
ado"  about  her,  Harrison  gets  sick,  and  becomes  jealous  of 
Browne.  Browne  gets  sick,  and  Harrison  turns  his  heel 
on  him.  Browne  resigns  his  pastorate  two  or  three  times, 
but  the  church  induces  him  to  reconsider.  Then  all  hands 
come  together  for  mutual  confession  and  reconciliation. 
Then  they  fall  by  the  ears  again,  and  Browne,  discouraged 
and  disgusted,  quits  the  whole  business,  and,  with  a  few 
families,  sails  away  to  Scotland. 

I  think  we  ought  in  fairness  to  remember  that  these 


238  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

simple,  honest  Englishmen  were  pioneers  in  this  difficult  art 
of  self-government;  that  their  desire  to  help  each  other 
to  be  good  was  what  led  them  to  act  so  foolishly;  and  that 
a  little  more  wisdom  at  this  single  point  would  have  saved 
their  noble  enterprise  from  disaster. 

III.       WHAT  MUST  WE  THINK  OF  BROWNE  HIMSELF? 

Our  third  question  is,  How  ought  we  to  judge  of  Robert 
Browne  himself?  The  day  he  died  in  Northampton  jail,  a 
crabbed,  crusty  octogenarian,  he  had  few  friends  in  the 
world,  perhaps  not  any.  Very  likely  he  had  not  learned  how 
to  grow  old  gracefully,  and  had  come  to  be  something  of  a 
nuisance.  The  outside  world  had  long  since  passed  him  by. 
His  contemporaries,  for  the  most  part,  speak  ill  of  him. 
The  Church  of  England  folks  could  never  forget  the  tre- 
mendous emphasis  with  which  he  had,  in  earlier  days, 
spoken  and  written  against  her  corruption  and  subjection. 
Nevertheless,  bad  as  he  was,  he  was  good  enough 
to  be  one  of  her  accredited  ministers  for  more  than 
forty  years.  The  Puritan  folks  of  the  Cartwright  order, 
and  the  other  Puritan  folks  still  abiding  in  the  National 
Establishment,  accounted  him  too  radical  by  far,  and  an 
extremist  of  the  worst  type  in  the  matter  of  separation  and 
congregational  polity.  The  Independents  of  old  England, 
who  sprang  up  later,  and  our  own  Pilgrim  and  Puritan 
Fathers  held  it  a  reproach  to  be  nicknamed  "Brownists," 
and  repudiated  the  pedigree.  With  a  man  who  could  so 
disgracefully  apostatize  they  would  acknowledge  no  affilia- 
tion. Modern  Congregationalists  have,  as  a  rule,  felt  and 
written  the  same  way.  Only  comparatively  recently  has 
the  tide  begun  to  turn.  The  credit  for  this  reversal 
of  judgment  belongs  chiefly  to  Dr.  Dexter,  who 
has  personally  examined  every  original   document,   made 


Explanation  of  Browne's  Strange  Career  239 

an  exhaustive  study  of  the  whole  case,  and  finds  himself 
proud  and  happy  in  the  ability  to  place  Browne  securely  in 
his  natural  primacy  among  the  great  thinkers  of  modern 
Congregationalism. 

Dexter  declares  that  three  hypotheses  exhaust  the  sub- 
ject of  this  remarkable  career,  and  each  of  these  hypotheses 
he  examines  at  length.  First,  Robert  Browne  was  a  hypo- 
crite and  a  sneak,  bad  from  skin  to  core.  Secondly,  he  was 
an  honest  man  throughout,  honest  in  opposing  and  leaving 
mother  church,  and  honest  in  returning  to  her  bosom. 
Thirdly,  he  was  an  honest  man  throughout,  rational  and  con- 
sistent in  the  first  forty  years  of  his  life,  broken  in  mind, 
and  semi-insane  during  the  last  forty — to  be  pitied,  there- 
fore, rather  than  blamed. 

That  Browne  was  not  a  bad  man  is  evident  from  these 
facts:  First,  that  Rev.  Richard  Greenham  believed  in  him 
thoroughly.  The  force  of  this  proof  can  only  be  felt  by  an 
exhibition  of  the  sterling  qualities,  the  sagacity,  the  penetra- 
tion of  this  man  Greenham.  Secondly,  Browne  himself  was 
strongly  drawn  to  this  man,  found  in  him  something  con- 
genial, delighted  in  his  companionship.  Thirdly,  that 
Browne's  writings  abound  in  proofs  of  his  intelligence,  his 
sincerity,  his  piety.  No  ordinary  man  was  he  in  his  pro- 
found discernment  of  the  deep  things  of  the  spirit  of  God. 
If  there  ever  was  a  saint,  Browne  was  one;  his  writings  show 
it.  The  stories  of  his  scandalous  sins  while  an  Episcopal 
rector.  Dexter  has  traced  to  their  sources,  and  has  shown 
them  to  be  mostly  lies.  For  example,  that  he  beat  his  wife, 
and  then  justified  himself  on  the  ground  that  he  beat  her 
"not  as  his  wife,  but  as  a  curst  old  woman."  The  story  loses 
pith  and  point  when  it  is  known  that,  at  the  time,  Browne 
did  not  have  any  wife. 


240  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

The  second  hypothesis  Dexter  disposes  of  as  follows. 
I  quote  his  language : 

I  throw  out  altogether  the  notion  that  he  could  have  been  a 
genuine  man  to  the  period  of  his  return  to  the  communion  which 
excommunicated  him,  then  breaking  down,  of  a  sudden,  into  a 
renegade  and  a  reprobate;  because,  in  general,  I  do  not  believe  in  that 
kind  of  falling  from  grace; — because  the  change  in  him  was  too  sud- 
den to  have  been  of  that  character;  and  because  if  that  thing  had 
happened,  we  should  surely  have  found  him  publishing  books  against 
the  Brownists,  and,  at  the  very  least,  under  Burghley's  patronage, 
bidding  for  a  bishopric! 

The  third  hypothesis,  Dexter  finds  to  be  the  key  to  the 
mystery  of  his  career,  viz. :  that  the  last  forty  or  forty-five 
years  of  his  life  were  shrouded  "by  dark  shadows  of  mental 
disorder — sometimes  almost  deepening  into  the  midnight  of 
actual  insanity."  Dexter's  reasons  for  thinking  so  are  as 
follows  (I  have  not  time  to  expand)  :  First,  his  natural 
constitution  was  nervous,  brooding,  fervid,  fitful,  fiery. 
Secondly,  he  had  a  feeble  physical  constitution.  Thirdly,  he 
underwent  great  suflferings.  The  English  prisons  were  hor- 
rible. He  knew  more  than  thirty  of  them.  Fourthly, 
peculiarities  in  his  language  and  conduct  have  an  insane  look. 
A  certain  letter  to  Burghley  is  certainly  insane. 
Many  of  his  entries  in  the  parish  records  betoken  a  mind  off 
its  hinges.  The  same  may  be  said  of  his  conduct  at  St. 
Olave's.  Fifthly,  the  tone  of  some  of  Burghley's  letters  con- 
cerning him  seems  to  point  in  the  same  direction.  Lastly, 
Bredwell,  a  physician,  and  several  other  contemporaries  dis- 
covered his  disordered  state,  and  pronounced  him  "mad." 
Dexter  in  expanding  these  six  points  makes  out  a  fairly  good 
case. 

There  is  one  other  explanation  which  Dexter  does  not 
name,  which  seems  to  me  more  plausible  than  any  other. 
Browne  met  so  many  difficulties,  and  received  such  ill  usage, 


Browne  Doubtless  Disheartened  241 

that  he  lost  heart  and  gave  up  the  struggle.  This  is  not  an 
uncommon  experience.  He  started  out  with  the  desire  to 
know  and  follow  the  truth.  He  believed  that  he  had  actually 
discovered  it.  Then  he  began  zealously  to  put  it  into  prac- 
tice. Then  he  began  to  suffer  for  his  opinions.  Presently 
they  clapped  him  into  jail.  Thirty-three  different  times  he 
found  himself  behind  the  bars.  The  prisons  were  loathsome", 
and  oftentimes  so  dark  that  he  could  not  see  his  hand  at 
noonday.  His  courage  still  held  him  up.  He  organized  a 
church  after  the  New  Testament  pattern  as  he  conceived  it, 
and  became  its  pastor.  Nothing  worked  smoothly.  The 
members  could  not  agree  among  themselves.  They  turned 
against  him  and  made  life  a  burden.  He  got  tired ;  he  grew 
discouraged;  he  lost  heart.  At  last  he  said.  What's  the 
use  ?  I  have  tried  as  honestly  as  I  know  how.  My  enemies 
hate  me;  my  friends  turn  against  me.  God  knows  I  have 
no  heart  to  continue  the  struggle.  What  is  the  use?  And 
he  quit.  If  others  want  to  stand  up  against  this  thing,  let 
them  do  it.  I  have  had  enough.  And  so  he  hired  out  as  a 
school  teacher,  and  afterward  as  a  parish  priest. 

The  hardships,  privations,  sufferings,  imprisonments, 
rebuffs,  disappointments,  and  failures  had  taken  all  the 
resolution  out  of  him.  He  concluded  to  quit.  He  had  had 
enough.  Did  he  doubt  the  truth  of  his  opinions?  Oh,  no. 
Only  he  had  no  spirit  and  courage  to  push  them  in  the  face 
of  such  opposition.  He  was  disheartened;  he  had  lost  his 
hope.  He  longed  for  some  corner  where  he  could  rest  and 
be  let  alone.  Many  a  man  has  been  overcome  in  this  way 
before  half  his  days  are  over.  If  you  blame  and  condemn 
Browne  perhaps  your  feelings  would  change  after  you  had 
been  clapped  into  jail  about  thirty-two  times.  For  my  part, 
I  admire  and  love  and  pity  Robert  Browne.  That  he  was 
one  of  God's  true  children  I  have  not  a  doubt.    That  he  dis- 


242  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

covered  and  stated  God's  revealed  constitution  and  govern- 
ment of  the  Cliristian  church  I  have  not  a  doubt.  That  this 
discovery  and  statement  cost  him  a  struggle  within  and 
without  that  unbalanced  his  reason  may  have  been  true; 
but  I  think  he  lost  his  grip. 

BROWNISTS  AND  BARROWISTS 

I  have  not  left  myself  time  to  speak  of  the  party  which 
Browne's  principles  created  in  England.  God  did  not  permit 
the  seed  to  die.  Those  books  which  Browne  and  Harrison 
printed  in  Middelberg  were  designed  for  secret  circu- 
lation in  England,  and  they  bore  an  abundant  harvest.  Two 
of  them  had  these  titles :  the  one,  A  Book  That  Showeth  the 
Life  and  Manners  of  All  True  Christians,  and  the  other, 
Of  Reformation  Without  Tarrying  for  Any,  and  of  the 
Wickedness  of  Those  Preachers  Who  Will  Not  Reform 
Themselves  and  Their  Charge,  Because  They  Will  Tarry 
Till  the  Majestrate  Command  and  Compel  Them. 

Two  non-conforming  clergymen  were  hanged  for  spread- 
ing these  "books  seditiously  penned  by  Robert  Browne 
against  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer."  Rev.  John  Copping 
had  been  shut  up  in  the  common  jail  of  Bury  for  seven  years 
for  non-conformity.  He  and  a  fellow  prisoner.  Rev.  Elias 
Thacker,  were  the  first  to  pay  the  death  penalty  for  enter- 
taining congregational  views,  but  they  were  not  by  any 
means  the  last.  The  government  deemed  it  fitting  that 
Browne's  books  should  be  hung  around  their  necks  as  they 
ascended  the  scaffold.  After  the  hanging  of  these  first  con- 
fessors, the  theories  of  Browne  spread  with  amazing 
rapidity.  Thacker  and  Copping  suffered  their  ignominious 
death  in  1583.  Exactly  ten  years  later,  1593,  Parliament 
had  before  it  a  new  law  for  the  suppression  of  the  Brown- 
ists.    In  the  debate  on  that  bill,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  declared, 


Brownists  and  Barrowists  243 

"There  are  near  20,000  of  them  in  England."  Already 
these  strange  people,  indulging  these  revolutionary  ideas, 
were  beginning  to  be  known  by  a  new  name.  The  word 
"Barrowist"  was  taking  the  place  of  Brownist.  Until  very 
recently  the  Independents  in  England  and  the  Congrega- 
tionalists  in  America  have  traced  their  origin  to  Henry 
Barrowe,  repudiating  Robert  Browne.  The  most  recent  his- 
torical investigations,  however,  are  vindicating  Browne's 
memory  and  claims.  Congregationalists  have  likewise 
named  as  their  first  church,  not  the  one  which  Browne  or- 
ganized in  Norwich  in  1850-81,  but  the  one  organized  in 
London  in  1592  with  Francis  Johnson  as  pastor  and  John 
Greenwood  as  teacher. 

The  truth  of  history  is  that  modern  Congregationalism 
sprang  primarily  from  Robert  Browne  and  secondarily  from 
Henry  Barrowe,  John  Greenwood,  John  Penry,  Francis 
Johnson,  and  a  few  others.  Johnson  was  exiled,  and  Penry, 
Greenwood,  and  Barrowe  were  hanged.  They  were  among 
the  purest,  wisest,  worthiest  men  the  Church  of  Christ  has 
ever  known.  The  story  of  their  sufferings  and  death  is 
thrilling  and  pathetic  beyond  the  power  of  words  to  tell. 
They  lived  and  died  for  the  truth,  and  through  their  writ- 
ings and  patient  endurance  of  persecution,  and  heroic  facing 
of  death,  lodged  their  precious  thought  in  thousands  of 
English  hearts.  In  the  coming  days  of  Cromwell  it  will 
triumph,  for  a  season,  over  the  Episcopacy  of  Elizabeth  and 
the  Presbyterianism  of  Cartwright.  But  these  are  the  days 
of  trial  and  shame,  of  dungeon  and  rack,  of  scaffold  and 
gibbet.     Crucified  today,  it  awaits  the  coming  resurrection. 

Let  me  now  conclude  by  stating  in  order  the  divisions 
and  parties  into  which  Puritanism  broke. 

First,  there  were  Puritans  who  believed  in  a  national 
established  church  and  in  the  Prayer-Book  and  in  Episco- 


244  Robert  Browne  and  English  Independency 

pacy,  only  they  had  no  Hking  for  the  popish  features  of  the 
Prayer-Book  and  wished  to  see  them  ehminated. 

Secondly,  there  were  Puritans  who  believed  in  a  national 
established  church,  but  did  not  like  the  Prayer-Book  or 
Episcopacy.  In  the  place  of  the  Prayer-Book  they  wished 
to  substitute  the  Worship-Book  and  the  discipline  of  John 
Calvin;  and  in  the  place  of  Episcopacy  they  wished  to  sub- 
stitute Presbyterianism.  Thomas  Cartwright  was  their 
great  leader. 

Thirdly,  there  were  Puritans  who  repudiated  a  national 
established  church,  the  Prayer-Book  and  the  Calvin  Wor- 
ship-Book, Episcopacy  and  Presbyterianism.  They  believed 
in  local,  independent  churches,  subject  only  to  Christ.  Their 
church  polity  was  congregational  and  their  great  representa- 
tive was  Robert  Browne. 

Fourthly,  there  were  Puritans  who  believed  all  that 
Robert  Browne  believed — independent  churches,  congrega- 
tional government,  etc.,  and  then  went  one  step  farther, 
restoring  the  ordinances  of  the  church  to  their  original 
simplicity,  giving  baptism  only  to  professed  believers,  and 
rejecting  infant  baptism.  These  were  Baptists.  They  be- 
lieved neither  in  a  national  church,  nor  in  the  Prayer-Book, 
nor  in  Calvin's  Worship-Book,  nor  in  Episcopacy,  nor  in 
Presbytery,  nor  in  the  baptism  of  unconscious  babes.  They 
did  believe  in  separation  from  the  national  church,  in  the 
coming  together  of  true  believers  in  local  churches,  in  the 
independency  and  self-government  of  these  churches,  in  the 
officers  and  ordinances  in  these  churches  which  Christ  him- 
self had  appointed.  They  went  one  step  farther  than  the 
Congregationalists  in  reserving  baptism  for  believers  who 
could  make  an  intelligent  profession  of  their  faith  and  in 
refusing  the  ordinance  to  babes.  One  step  farther,  like- 
wise, in  rejecting  pouring  and  sprinkling,  and  practicing 
only  immersion. 


IX 

PURITANISM  IN  THE  REIGN  OF  CHARLES  I, 
FROM  THE  ATTEMPT  TO  FORCE  EPISCO- 
PACY ON  SCOTLAND  TILL  HIS  DEATH, 
1636-49 


IX 

PURITANISM  IN  THE  REIGN  OF  CHARLES  I, 
FROM  THE  ATTEMPT  TO  FORCE  EPISCO- 
PACY ON  SCOTLAND  TILL  HIS  DEATH, 
1636-49 

In  1636  Laud  prepared  a  Book  of  Canons  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Church  of  Scotland.  Charles,  on  his  own 
sole  authority,  gave  these  canons  the  force  of  law.  Even 
Episcopalians  and  Royalists  looked  upon  this  act  as  an 
arbitrary  stretch  of  kingly  prerogative,  and  as  a  grossly 
extravagant  usurpation  and  exercise  of  power.  The  Scotch 
branded  it  as  an  infamous  outrage. 

The  next  year,  the  archbishop  took  a  step  which  brought 
matters  to  a  crisis.  He  determined  to  abolish  the  Book  of 
Common  Order  in  use  in  the  Scottish  church,  and  in  the 
place  of  this  Knox's  liturgy  based  on  the  Geneva  Prayer- 
Book,  to  set  up  his  own  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

In  1637  Charles  and  Laud  attempted  to  force  this 
English  ritual  upon  the  Scottish  kirk.  Wherein  the  liturgy 
differed  from  the  English  it  differed  in  the  interest  of  popery. 
In  the  Calendar,  St.  George  and  St.  Patrick  are  retained. 
In  the  rubrics,  the  worshipers  are  told  when  to  sit,  when  to 
stand,  when  to  kneel.  In  the  Scripture  lessons,  parts  of  the 
Aprocrypha  find  a  place.  The  Lord's  Supper  is  made  as 
near  like  the  mass  as  possible,  and  the  priest  prays  concern- 
ing the  bread  and  wine  "which  we  now  offer  unto  thee  that 
they  may  become  the  body  and  blood  of  thy  most  dearly 
beloved  Son." 

Sunday,  July  23,  1637,  the  attempt  is  made  to  observe  this 
service  in  the  Church  of  St.  Giles,  Edinburgh.     A  tremen- 

247 


248  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  0}  Charles  I 

dotis  crowd  is  present.  The  lord  chancellor  and  the  arch- 
bishop of  St.  Andrew's  are  there.  Privy  councilors,  su- 
preme judges,  and  city  magistrates  are  there.  The  dean  of 
Edinburgh,  in  his  surplice,  is  to  read  the  new  service,  and 
the  bishop  of  Edinburgh  is  to  preach.  No  sooner  does  the 
dean  begin  the  collect  than  Janet  Geddes,  an  old  woman  who 
kept  a  greengrocer's  stall,  seizes  the  stool  on  which  she  is 
sitting,  and,  screaming,  "Thou  false  thief,  dost  thou  say 
mass  at  my  ear?"  hurls  the  stool  at  the  reader's  head.  Then 
the  women  generally,  with  angry  cries,  make  a  rush  for  the 
pulpit,  and  the  dean,  terror-stricken,  strips  off  his  surplice, 
and  flees  for  his  life.  The  bishop,  ascending  the  pulpit,  is 
met  by  a  volley  of  stones  and  missiles,  and  his  voice  is 
drowned  in  cries  of  "A  pope,  a  pope.  Antichrist,  Antichrist, 
stone  him,  stone  him."  At  last  the  rioters  are  expelled  from 
the  church,  the  doors  are  bolted,  and  the  service  is  brought 
to  an  end. 

When  Laud  gets  the  news  he  boils  over  with  rage  and 
swears  the  Scots  must  be  disciplined.  Strafford  says, 
"These  hounds  must  be  whipped  back  to  common-sense." 
Charles  angers  the  English  people  by  his  despotic  measures 
to  draft  and  equip  an  army  for  an  unholy  war.  The  Scottish 
people  in  national  covenant  band  together  in  revolution. 
Charles  finds  himself  at  the  head  of  a  small  army  which 
believed  the  Scots  were  in  the  right,  and  which  could  not  be 
induced  to  strike  the  foe.  Despairing  and  bankrupt,  he 
resolves  to  call  a  parliament. 

For  eleven  years,  without  a  parliament,  with  a  high  hand, 
he  has  misruled  the  English  nation.  Civil  and  ecclesiastical 
despotism  has  sought  the  destruction  of  both  religion 
and  law. 

In  April,  1640,  the  "Short  Parliament"  met  for  three 
weeks.     Charles  demanded  money  to  carry  on  his  Scotch 


The  Short  Parliament  and  Scotch  War  249 

war.  The  Commons  refused  to  talk  about  money  until 
religion  and  grievances  had  been  considered.  So  the  debate 
began.  It  took  up  "innovations  in  religion,"  violations  of 
fundamental  laws,  intrusions  upon  liberty,  ship-money, 
illegal  monopolies.  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission 
courts,  the  changes  in  religion  which  tended  to  translate 
Canterbury  into  Rome,  popish  books,  popish  ceremonies, 
altars,  bowing  toward  the  east,  pictures,  crucifixes,  etc. 

Charles  found  that  the  Commons  would  not  give  him 
money,  so,  in  anger,  he  dissolved  the  houses.  He  pushed 
despotic  measures  more  insanely  than  ever.  He  cast  mem- 
bers of  the  late  parliament  into  prison.  He  threatened  to 
imprison  the  lord  mayor  and  sheriffs  of  London.  He 
exacted  ship-money  and  taxes  of  various  sorts  in  the  most 
ruthless  fashion.  He  forced  men  from  their  plows  to  serve 
in  the  army.  The  dissolution  of  Parliament  and  these  high- 
handed proceedings  outraged  and  aroused  the  English  public. 
Guizot  uses  a  tame  word  when  he  says  that  "the  people  were 
indignant  at  seeing  their  rights,  their  creed,  their  persons, 
their  possessions  surrendered  to  the  irresponsible  will  of  the 
king  and  his  council." 

In  the  mean  time  the  "Scotch  War"  made  no  progress 
at  all.  The  English  army  would  not  fight.  They  were  in 
sympathy  with  the  foe.  They  wanted  to  see  the  Scots  tri- 
umphant. The  soldiers,  many  of  them  Puritan  conscripts, 
when  they  heard  the  Scottish  drum-beat  summon  the  troops 
to  sermon,  or  at  sunrise  heard  the  hostile  camp  ring  with 
psalms  and  prayers,  knew  that  to  fight  such  enemies  would 
be  to  fight  their  own  brothers,  would  be  to  fight  against 
English  liberty,  and  would  be  to  fight  against  God.  So  we 
wonder  not  that  the  Scots  pressed  on,  with  slight  resistance, 
across  the  Tweed  and  the  Tyne,  into  Yorkshire,  and,  cutting 
off  the  coal  supplies,  had  London  at  their  mercy.     Neither 


250  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  0}  Charles  I 

do  we  wonder  that  the  Scottish  army  maintained  the  exact- 
est  discipHne,  plundered  nothing,  took  nothing  without  pay, 
and  sent  to  Charles  apologies  for  the  necessity  that  had 
forced  them  to  achieve  the  victory. 

Discomfited  on  every  side,  without  authority  in  his  own 
army,  his  resources  exhausted,  his  English  subjects  hating 
the  war  intensely,  venting  their  wrath  in  riots  in  London,  in 
sacking  Laud's  palace,  in  publishing  angry  pamphlets, 
Charles  and  Laud  and  Strafford  saw  that  a  parliament  must 
be  called  or  the  king  must  cease  to  reign. 

So  on  November  3,  1640,  the  Long  Parliament  met — 
the  most  famous  and  the  most  powerful  which  England  has 
ever  known — that  renowned  parliament  which,  as  Macaulay 
says,  "  is  justly  entitled  to  the  reverence  and  gratitude  of  all 
who,  in  any  part  of  the  world,  enjoy  the  blessings  of  con- 
stitutional government." 

The  Parliament  was  made  up  of  the  ablest  and  best- 
tried  men  in  England. 

As  to  their  religion  [says  Lord  Clarendon],  they  were  all  members 
of  the  Established  Church,  and  almost  to  a  man  for  episcopal  govern- 
ment. Both  Lords  and  Commons  were  most,  if  not  all,  peaceable, 
orthodox,  Church  of  England  men;  all  conforming  to  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  of  Episcopacy,  but  greatly  averse  to  popery,  tyranny,  and 
to  the  corrupt  part  of  that  church  that  inclined  to  Rome. 

A  change  of  sentiment  came  over  Parliament  before  it 
dissolved,  the  reasons  for  which  will  appear  in  the  sequel. 
From  November,  1640,  to  October,  1641,  the  proceedings 
were  for  the  most  part  harmonious.  The  houses  were  not 
distracted  by  divided  counsels.  The  awful  tyranny  in 
church  and  state  under  which  the  nation  had  groaned  for 
the  last  eleven  years  unified  the  representatives  of  the  people. 
The  Commons  commenced  as  usual  with  the  grievances.  Pe- 
titions from  all  sorts  of  folks  poured  in  demanding  redress. 


Petitions  to  the  Long  Parliament  251 

These  petitions  came  from  all  over  the  kingdom — from 
York,  Norfolk,  Essex,  Kent,  Somerset,  in  fact  from  nearly 
every  shire.  Many  of  them  were  of  a  general  nature,  com- 
plaining, as  the  Commons  Journal  says,  of  the  "burdens  and 
oppressions  of  the  people  in  their  consciences,  liberties,  and 
properties,  and  especially  in  the  heavy  tax  of  ship-money." 
Still  other  petitions  set  forth  specific  cases.  We  shall  get  a 
clear  idea  of  the  state  of  things  by  giving  heed  to  three  or 
four  of  these  specific  cases.  One  of  the  first  read  vv^as  that 
of  Susannah  Bastwick.    It 

recited  that  four  years  previously  her  husband,  a  physician,  had 
been  brought  before  the  Star  Chamber  for  writing  and  publishing  books 
against  the  church ;  that  in  his  defense,  her  husband,  Mr.  Bastwick, 
boldly  charged  the  prelates  with  despising  the  Scriptures  and  advan- 
cing popery,  superstition,  and  idolatry;  that  he  had  been  condemned 
to  pay  a  fine  of  £5,000,  to  be  put  into  the  pillory,  and  to  lose  his  ears, 
and  that  he  had  since  been  kept  in  close  confinement. 

Mrs.  Bastwick,  in  her  petition,  says  that  her  husband's 
imprisonment  began  four  years  ago,  but  in  fact  his  troubles 
started  seven  years  earlier.  It  was  in  1633  that  Bastwick 
and  two  others,  whose  cases  have  become  famous,  were 
dealt  with. 

I.  William  Pryn,  Esq.,  was  a  barrister  at  law.  Rewrote 
a  book  against  plays,  masks,  dancing,  etc.,  in  which  he  railed 
against  Maypoles,  Christmas-keeping,  etc.  The  book  was 
regularly  licensed,  but  it  was  felt  that  it  aspersed  the  queen, 
who  was  fond  of  stage  plays.  Pryn  was  brought  before  the 
Star  Chamber,  and  was  sentenced  to  have  his  book  burned 
by  the  common  hangman,  to  be  debarred  as  a  lawyer,  to  be 
turned  out  of  the  Society  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  to  be  degraded 
at  Oxford,  to  stand  in  the  pillory  at  Westminster  and  also 
at  Cheapside,  to  lose  both  his  ears,  one  in  each  place,  to  pay 
a  fine  of  £5,000,  and  to  suffer  perpetual  imprisonment. 


252  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  0}  Charles  I 

2.  Rev.  Mr.  Burton,  B.D.,  published  two  sermons  en- 
titled "For  God  and  the  King."  In  these  he  criticized  the 
late  innovations  in  religion  and  worship.  For  this  offense 
he  was  committed  a  close  prisoner  in  Gate  House. 

3.  Mr.  Bastwick  was  a  physician.  He  wrote  a  book  in 
which  he  denied  the  divine  right  of  bishops  above  presbyters. 
This  angered  the  bishops  and  he  was  cited  before  the  Court 
of  High  Commission.  The  court  deprived  him  of  his 
doctor's  degree,  excommunicated  him  from  the  church,  fined 
him  £1,000,  and  cast  him  into  prison  until  he  should  recant. 
So  were  these  three  men  treated  by  Star  Chamber  and  High 
Commission — a  lawyer,  a  minister,  and  a  doctor.  At  the 
very  same  time  an  arrant  Papist  wrote  a  book  in  defense  of 
popery,  and  not  only  was  not  punished  but  was  permitted  to 
dedicate  it  to  the  archbishop. 

But  we  are  not  yet  through  with  these  three  men.  After 
lying  in  prison  three  years  they  are  once  more  before  Star 
Chamber.  This  time  they  are  charged  with  writing  and 
publishing  seditious  books  while  lying  in  confinement.  For 
this  offense  Star  Chamber  passed  this  sentence  upon  them 
(I  quote  from  the  verdict)  : 

Mr.  Burton  be  deprived  of  his  living  and  degraded  from  his  min- 
istry, as  Pryn  and  Bastwick  had  been  from  their  professions  of  law 
and  physic;  that  each  of  them  be  fined  £5,000;  that  they  stand  in  the 
pillory  at  Westminster  and  have  their  ears  cut  off;  and  because  Mr. 
Pryn  had  already  lost  his  ears  by  sentence  of  the  court,  1633,  it  was 
ordered  that  the  remainder  of  his  stumps  should  be  cut  off,  and  that 
he  should  be  stigmatized  on  both  cheeks  with  the  letters  S.  L.  [sedi- 
tious libeler  (?)],  and  then  all  three  were  to  suffer  perpetual 
imprisonment   in   the    remotest   prisons   of   the   kingdom. 

One  was  sent  to  the  Scilly  Islands,  one  to  Guernsey,  and 
one  to  Jersey,  and  there  they  were  kept  without  pen,  ink, 
or  paper,  or  the  access  of  friends,  until  the  Long  Parliament 
liberated  them. 


Prisoners  Released  and  Persecutors  Arrested  253 

I  was  saying  that  the  Long  ParHament  met  on  Novem- 
ber 3,  1640.  At  once  petitions  began  to  pour  in,  among  the 
very  first  being  one  from  Mrs.  Bastwick  praying  for  the 
release  of  her  husband.  These  petitions  were  heeded  and 
the  prison  doors  were  thrown  open.  From  the  distant 
islands — Scilly,  Guernsey,  Jersey — came  Bastwick,  Pryn, 
and  Burton,  and  from  the  Fleet  came  Dr.  Leighton,  another 
who  had  likewise  suffered.  Many  others  were  released. 
Multitudes  waited  on  these  men  as  they  journeyed  through 
England  on  their  way  to  London.  On  December 
3,  Bastwick,  Burton,  and  Pryn  appeared  in  the 
House  and  presented  their  cases.  Dr.  Leighton's 
account  of  his  sufferings  drew  tears  from  the  Com- 
moners. The  fines  against  these  men  were  canceled  and 
reparation  was  made  for  their  losses.  Six  thousand  pounds 
was  voted  to  Burton,  £5,000  each  to  Pryn  and  Bastwick. 
Satisfaction  was  also  voted  to  Dr.  Leighton  for  his  suffer- 
ings ;  but  the  thirty-six  stripes  he  had  received  on  his  naked 
back  with  a  threefold  cord,  his  hands  being  tied  to  a  stake, 
the  slitting  of  his  nostrils,  the  cutting-off  of  his  ears,  the 
branding  of  his  cheeks,  and  the  ten  years  he  had  passed  in 
prison,  in  a  loathsome  dog-hole  full  of  rats  and  mice,  with 
no  light  except  from  a  small  grate,  with  no  bedding,  nor 
place  to  make  a  fire  but  the  ruins  of  an  old  smoky  chimney — 
sufferings  such  as  these  could  not  be  compensated  for  by 
money.  He  was  now  an  old  man  in  his  seventy-second 
year,  worn  out  with  poverty,  weakness,  and  pain,  and  just 
ready  to  topple  into  his  grave.  But  the  House  did  not  stop 
with  liberating  these  captives.  Their  tormentors  were 
arrested,  and  Strafford  and  Laud  and  Star  Chamber  and 
High  Commission  were  brought  to  the  bar.  The  secretary 
of  state  and  the  lord  keeper  of  the  Great  Seal,  and  other 


254  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  of  Charles  I 

of  the  king's  councilors  were  summoned  to  answer  charges. 
These  high  dignitaries  sought  safety  in  flight  to  France. 

I  say,  then,  that  no  sooner  had  the  Long  ParHament 
opened  than  petitions  of  all  sorts  began  to  pour  in;  and 
Parliament  began  to  redress  long-standing  wrongs.  It  was 
voted  that  no  interval  of  more  than  three  years  shall  ever 
elapse  in  future  between  parliament  and  parliament; 
voted  that  Star  Chamber,  High  Commission,  and  Council 
of  York  be  abolished;  voted  that  Puritan  prisoners  be  set 
free ;  voted  that  the  Ro3^al  Council  be  dissolved  and  that  its 
members  be  impeached. 

Strafford  and  Laud  were  arrested  and  cast  into  prison. 
The  king  deserted  Strafford  and  on  the  day  he  was  im- 
peached agreed  that  Parliament  should  not  be  broken  up 
without  its  own  consent.  It  begins  to  look  as  though 
Charles  was  finding  out  that  kingcraft  was  a  losing  game. 
It  begins  to  look  as  though  the  Puritans  were  about  to  gain 
a  respite  from  Laud's  inhuman  tyranny.  It  took  about  a 
year  for  Parliament  to  bring  about  the  changes  noted  above. 
Then  the  Houses  took  a  vacation  for  six  weeks. 

When  Parliament  reassembled  a  divergence  of  opinion 
began  to  show  itself.  The  governing  body  broke  into  parties 
— Roundheads  and  Cavaliers  (afterward  Whigs  and 
Tories).  There  were  several  occasions  for  these  divided 
counsels. 

I.  The  acts  of  Convocation  were  subjects  of  debate. 
Convocation  had  said, 

that  the  most  high  and  sacred  order  of  kings  is  of  divine  right,  being 
the  ordinance  of  God  himself;  that  for  subjects  to  bear  arms  against 
their  king,  either  ofifensive  or  defensive,  upon  any  pretense  Virhatso- 
ever,  is  worthy  of  damnation. 

Every  clergyman  must  preach  and  believe  this  on  pain  of 
excommunication,  which  penalty  shall  also   fall  upon  all 


Divided  Parliament  and  Irish  Massacre  255 

who  print  or  write  anything  against  the  discipline  of  the 
Church  of  England.  An  oath  had  been  imposed  on  all 
ecclesiastics  never  to  give  their  consent  to  alter  the  govern- 
ment of  the  church  by  archbishops,  bishops,  deans,  arch- 
deacons, etc.  This  oath  was  imposed  on  all  students  in  the 
universities,  all  graduates,  lawyers,  divines,  physicians,  and 
schoolmasters.  Complaints  against  the  oath  were  numer- 
ous and  loud,  especially  against  the  "etc."  part  of  it.  It 
was  called  "the  et  cetera  oath." 

When  the  Scots  Assembly  had  issued  their  declaration 
affirming  Episcopacy  to  be  unlawful.  Laud  had  tried  to 
counteract  the  effect  of  that  declaration  by  having  Bishop 
Hall  write  a  treatise  on  the  "Divine  Right  of  Episcopacy." 
Then  the  press  poured  forth  replies,  "Prelatical  Episcopacy 
Not  from  the  Apostles,"  "Lord  Bishops  Not  the  Lord's 
Bishops,"  etc.  Then  the  whole  nation  entered  into  the 
debate.  Then  into  Parliament  the  petitions  began  to  pour. 
Fifteen  thousand  citizens  of  London  petitioned  that  the 
whole  fabric  of  the  hierarchy  might  be  destroyed  root  and 
branch — "the  root  and  branch  petition."  Seven  hundred 
beneficed  clergymen  petitioned  that  Episcopacy  might  be  not 
destroyed,  but  reformed.  Six  thousand  nobility  and  gentry 
and  dignified  clergy  petitioned  that  Episcopacy  might  be  let 
alone,  since  without  bishops  there  can  be  no  presbyters,  no 
consecration  of  the  elements,  no  church.  On  this  question 
which  divided  the  nation.  Parliament  found  itself  divided. 

2.  In  the  meantime  the  Irish  rebellion  had  broken  out. 
It  was  currently  believed  (at  least  strongly  suspected)  that 
it  had  its  origin  in  the  wicked  brains  of  the  Romish  queen 
and  the  Puritan-hating  king.  Certain  it  is  that  the  Irish 
Catholics  hated  the  English  Parliament,  and  certain  it  is  that 
letters  were  written  in  the  queen's  name  authorizing  the 
seizure  of  government,  and  certain  it  is  that  there  was  an 


256  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  0}  Charles  I 

indiscriminate  slaughter  of  English  Protestants,  the  esti- 
mates running  from  10,000  to  400,000,  150,000  being  a 
sober  statement.  Hume  calls  it  a  "universal  massacre." 
"No  age  nor  sex  nor  condition  was  spared."  The  horrors 
cannot  be  described.  The  endless  sufferings  and  oppressions 
of  Strafford,  inflicted  on  the  Irish,  led  to  the  massacre.  It 
broke  out  in  October — a  conspiracy  among  all  Catholics  to 
murder  all  Protestants.  They  forced  the  houses  of  Protes- 
tants, and  murdered  the  inmates,  or  drove  them  out  naked. 
Thousands  died  of  hunger  and  cold  on  the  highway. 
Thousands  were  driven  into  streams  and  were  drowned,  or 
into  empty  houses  and  were  burned.  Charles  I  is  suspected 
to  have  had  previous  knowledge  of  the  massacre,  or  even  to 
have  instigated  it.    It  was  his  first  step  to  the  scaffold. 

Before  Parliament  came  the  question,  Shall  the  king 
have  an  army  to  bring  Ireland  into  submission?  Here  the 
rulers  split  into  two  nearly  equal  parties.  The  Royalists 
said,  nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  we  ought  to  give  the 
king  supplies  in  a  time  like  this.  The  opposition  said :  The 
king  is  not  to  be  trusted.  In  duplicity  and  treachery  he 
would  turn  his  army  against  the  liberties  of  England  herself. 

So,  instead  of  voting  the  king  their  confidence  and 
money,  the  opposition  moved  to  present  him  a  Grand 
Remonstrance.  That  Remonstrance  of  206  Articles  was  in 
the  nature  of  an  inventory  of  the  misdeeds  of  Charles  since 
the  day  he  became  king,  on  the  ground  of  which  the  present 
national  distrust  was  made  to  rest. 

The  Grand  Remonstrance  was  carried  by  a  majority  of 
only  eleven.  The  king's  prospects  looked  hopeful.  If  he 
could  restrain  himself,  and  not  play  the  fool  he  might  soon 
have  Parliament  on  his  side.  He  promised  his  chief  sup- 
porters that  he  would  do  nothing  of  importance  without 
their  knowledge,   but   feeling  his   returning  strength  and 


The  Grand  Remonstrance  and  Civil  War  257 

burning  with  vindictive  rage,  he  violated  his  promise. 
Without  giving  notice  to  his  friends,  on  that  fatal  day, 
January  3,  1642,  Charles  sent  his  attorney-general  to  im- 
peach Hampden,  Pym,  Hollis,  and  other  Puritan  leaders 
of  the  Commons,  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords.  The 
next  day  (January  4)  he  went  in  person  to  the  House,  fol- 
lowed by  five  hundred  soldiers,  to  seize  the  five  members. 
The  members  had  been  forewarned  and  could  not  be  found. 
This  act  roused  the  whole  English  nation.    Macaulay  says : 

The  flagging  zeal  of  the  party  opposed  to  the  court  revived  in  an 
instant.  During  the  night  which  followed  the  outrage,  the  whole  city 
of  London  was  in  arms.  In  a  few  hours  the  roads  leading  to  the 
capital  were  covered  with  a  multitude  of  yeomen,  spurring  hard  to 
Westminster,  with  the  badges  of  the  parliamentary  cause  in  their 
hats.  In  the  House  of  Commons  the  opposition  became  at  once  irre- 
sistible, and  carried,  by  more  than  two  votes  to  one,  resolutions  of 
unprecedented  violence.  Strong  bodies  of  train-bands,  regularly 
relieved,  mounted  guard  around  Westminster  Hall.  The  gates  of  the 
king's  palace  were  daily  besieged  by  a  furious  multitude,  whose 
taunts  and  execrations  were  heard  even  in  the  presence  chamber,  and 
who  could  scarcely  be  kept  out  of  the  royal  apartments  by  the 
gentlemen  of  the  household.  Then  Charles  quitted  London  never  to 
return  till  the  day  of  a  terrible  and  memorable  reckoning  had  arrived. 

Into  the  details  of  the  Civil  War  which  ensued  we  cannot 
enter  farther  than  to  point  out  a  few  incidents  in  the  fortunes 
of  Puritanism.  From  January  to  August,  1642,  was  spent 
in  fruitless  negotiations.  The  adherents  of  Charles  and 
those  of  Parliament  ranged  themselves  with  their  respective 
parties.  On  August  22,  1642,  the  king  set  up  the  royal 
standard  at  Nottingham,  and  the  herald-at-arms  read  the 
royal  proclamation,  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  war.  On 
his  side  was  a  large  part  of  the  nobility  and  the  gentry  of 
the  kingdom  who,  while  not  in  love  with  Charles,  the 
treacherous  king,  nor  with  Laud's  intolerant  church,  stood 


258  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  of  Charles  I 

in  fear  of  the  overthrow  of  monarchy  itself  and  of  an 
Episcopal  state  establishment.  On  his  side,  too,  were  the 
Rom.anists,  because  the  queen  was  of  their  faith.  On  his 
side,  too,  were  most  of  the  clergy,  the  two  universities,  and 
so  many  of  the  English  people  as  loved  the  church  ritual, 
and  so  many  as  hated  the  strictures  and  sobriety  of  the 
Puritans.  On  the  side  of  Parliament  were  the  yeomanry  of 
the  country,  the  small  freeholders,  the  merchants  and  trades- 
people of  the  towns,  the  municipal  corporations,  the 
members  of  the  Church  of  England  who  still  adhered  to 
Calvinistic  doctrines,  and  that  part  of  the  aristocracy  that 
detested  popery  and  longed  for  civil  liberty.  Of  course  the 
Puritans  were  the  staunch  and  enthusiastic  supporters  of 
the  cause  of  Parliament. 

Very  early  the  English  Parliament  realized  the  impor- 
tance of  an  alliance  with  Scotland,  but  Presbyterian  Scot- 
land had  no  liking  for  the  episcopal  system,  and,  that  this 
difficulty  might  be  removed.  Parliament  enacted,  September 
10,  1642,  that  the  prelatic  form  of  church  government, 
archbishops,  bishops,  etc.,  should  cease,  determine,  and  be- 
come absolutely  void  after  November  5,  1643.  It  went  on 
voting  that  the  Lord's  Day  should  be  better  observed;  that 
the  Book  of  Sports  should  be  suppressed;  that  monthly 
fasts  and  lectures  should  be  kept;  that  superstitious  monu- 
ments and  ornaments  should  be  removed  out  of  the 
churches ;  that  scandalous  and  inefficient  ministers  should  be 
tried;  that  Puritan  ministers  who  had  been  impoverished 
should  be  in  a  measure  reimbursed;  and,  finally,  on  June  12, 
1643,  they  passed  an  ordinance  for  the 

calling  of  an  assembly  of  learned  and  godly  divines,  and  others,  to 
be  consulted  with  by  the  Parliament,  for  the  settling  of  the  govern- 
ment and  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England  and  for  vindicating  and 


The  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  259 

clearing   of   the   doctrine   of   the   said   church   from   false   aspersions 
and  interpretations. 

So    originated    the    famous    Westminster    Assembly    of 
Divines. 

In  the  Civil  War  the  forces  of  the  king  were  being  vic- 
torious, and  the  Parliament  felt  more  strongly  than  ever 
the  absolute  necessity  of  an  alliance  with  Scotland.  Com- 
missioners representing  the  Lords,  the  Commons,  and  the 
Assembly  of  Divines  were  dispatched  to  Edinburgh.  The 
English  were  chiefly  intent  on  a  civil  league  with  Scotland 
for  the  defense  of  the  civil  liberties  of  both  countries.  The 
Scotch  were  chiefly  intent  on  a  religious  covenant  between 
the  two  kingdoms.  At  last  the  bond  of  union  was  so  framed 
as  to  embrace  both  objects,  a  result  reached  in  "The  Solemn 
League  and  Covenant."  The  Scotch  authorities  gave  their 
assent  to  this  instrument  amid  the  applause  of  some  and 
the  bursting  tears  of  others — tears  of  deep,  full,  and  sacred 
joy.  The  document  was  then  carried  to  England.  On  Sep- 
tember 25,  1643,  the  House  of  Commons  and  the  West- 
minster Assembly  took  the  Covenant. 

The  whole  audience  of  statesmen  and  divines  arose,  and  with 
right  hands  held  up  to  heaven,  worshipped  the  great  name  of  God, 
and  gave  their  sacred  pledge.  The  Commons  subscribed  on  one  roll 
of  parchment,  the  Assembly  on  another.  October  15,  the  House  of 
Lords  took  the  Covenant;  and  the  Sunday  following,  the  congrega- 
tions in  and  around  London. 

In  February,  1644,  Parliament  commanded  the  Cove- 
nant to  be  taken  throughout  the  kingdom  of  England  by  all 
persons  above  the  age  of  eighteen  years. 

A  word  about  the  composition  of  the  Westminster  Assem- 
bly of  Divines  will  pave  the  way  for  a  word  concerning  the 
political  and  religious  leanings  of  the  parliamentary  army. 
At  first  in  the  assembly  were  a  few  men  of  pronounced  Epis- 


26o  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  of  Charles  I 

copalian  views — government  of  the  church  by  bishops — but 
these  soon  dropped  out.  Nearly  all  of  them  were  ordained 
Episcopal  ministers.  The  larger  part  of  the  assembly  were 
Presbyterians,  who,  holding  Cartwright's  position,  believed 
that  the  governing  of  the  church  by  elders,  synods,  etc.,  was 
of  divine  appointment,  and  that  the  state  ought  to  force  all 
subjects  into  conformity  to  the  Presbyterian  model.  They 
had  no  more  sympathy  with  toleration  than  had  Laud  him- 
self, and  could  they  have  gained  ecclesiastical  control,  their 
despotism  and  tyranny  would  have  been  every  whit  as 
crushing  as  Laud's  or  "Bloody  Mary's."  Their  church  sys- 
tem was  God's  system,  plainly  revealed  in  the  Book,  and 
men,  all  men,  had  but  one  duty — to  submit.  To  tolerate 
error  would  be  to  share  in  the  guilt  of  error. 

The  party  next  in  numbers  and  influence  in  the  assembly 
were  the  Erastians,  so  named  from  one  Thomas  Erastus. 
They  held  that  in  the  Scriptures  no  form  of  church  govern- 
ment is  laid  down,  and  that,  therefore,  every  nation  is  at 
liberty  to  adopt  whatever  church  polity  and  discipline  seems 
best.  It  is  wholly  a  matter  for  civil  government  to  decide, 
and  then,  having  decided,  it  is  the  business  of  the  magis- 
trates to  see  that  the  people  conform,  and  to  punish 
offenders. 

The  smallest  party  in  the  assembly  was  made  up  of  the 
Independents,  who  believed  in  independent  local  church  gov- 
ernment, in  Congregationalism,  in  the  polity  to  which 
Baptists  hold  today.  The  churches  should  be  self-governing. 
The  state  has  no  right  to  interfere.  They  had  no  liking  for 
Popery,  nor  Episcopacy,  nor  Presbyterianism.  They  would 
almost  as  soon  have  been  coerced  by  the  Pope  as  by  the 
king  or  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  or  a  Presbyterian 
synod.  They  did  not  believe  in  coercion.  In  theory  they 
advocated  the  widest  toleration.     In  politics  they  were  as 


Independents  Rule  Parliament  and  Army  261 

impatient  of  the  divine  right  of  tcings  as  in  rehgion  of  the 
divine  right  of  bishops;  and  in  the  place  of  both  kings  and 
bishops  they  wanted  a  state  and  a  church  governed  by  the 
people — civil  and  ecclesiastical  democracy.  The  only  people 
who  believed  in  toleration,  even  in  theory,  were  the  Inde- 
pendents. Their  influence  in  the  Westminster  Assembly  was 
slight,  but  in  the  army  and  in  the  Parliament  before  long  it 
became  irresistible.  Vane's  tongue  and  Cromwell's  sword 
and  Milton's  pen  were  at  their  service. 

While  the  Westminster  Assembly  is  waging  its  theo- 
logical battles;  is  framing  a  Directory  of  Worship;  is  trying 
to  find  out  what  the  Bible  teaches  about  pastors,  teachers, 
deacons,  and  elders,  and  about  ordination  and  excom- 
munication; is  preparing  its  "Confession  of  Faith,"  and  its 
Larger  and  Shorter  Catechisms,  the  armies  of  Charles  and 
of  Parliament  are  facing  each  other  in  the  field. 

In  the  early  stages  of  the  Civil  War  the  king  is  almost 
everywhere  victorious.  Essex,  at  the  head  of  the  parlia- 
mentary forces,  while  a  most  excellent  and  estimable  old 
gentleman,  is  no  soldier.  He  is  a  kind  of  General  Banks 
sort  of  man — admirable  as  governor  of  Massachusetts  or 
as  speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  but  good  for 
nothing  in  New  Orleans  or  on  Red  River  expeditions.  If 
Parliament  is  to  win,  somehow  this  man  must  be  politely 
shelved. 

In  the  Independent  party  there  is  a  man  who  can  do  the 
business.  Cromwell  is  at  the  head  of  a  regiment  whose 
sides  are  iron.  They  can  pray  and  expound  Moses,  and 
sing  David's  psalms,  and  obey,  and  whip  anything  that 
fronts  them.  The  enemy  never  saw  their  backs.  They  are 
the  men  who  can  win  at  Marston  Moor,  and  with  the  army 
new  modeled,  they  are  the  men  who  can  at  Naseby  give  the 
army  of  the  Cavaliers  its  death  blow,  and  force  the  king  to 


262  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  0}  Charles  I 

surrender  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  Scotch.  They  were 
invincible  because  their  cause  was  just,  and  because  they 
cast  the  whole  burden  of  their  reliance  on  the  God  of  battles. 
Baxter  fairly  hated  their  notions  of  independency,  yet  he  is 
constrained  to  write: 

Many,  yea,  the  generality  of  those  people  throughout  England, 
who  went  by  the  name  of  Puritans,  who  followed  sermons,  prayed  in 
their  families,  read  books  of  devotion,  were  strict  observers  of  the  Sab- 
bath, being  avowed  enemies  to  swearing,  drunkenness,  and  all  profane- 
ness,  adhered  to  the  Parliament,  and  filled  up  their  armies  afterwards, 
because  they  heard  the  King's  soldiers  with  horrid  oaths  abuse  the 
name  of  God  and  saw  them  living  in  debauchery,  while  the  Parlia- 
ment soldiers  flocked  to  sermons,  talked  of  religion,  prayed  and  sung 
psalms  together  on  guards.  And  all  sober  men  of  my  acquaintance, 
who  opposed  the  Parliament,  used  to  say,  The  King  has  the  best  cause, 
but  the  Parliament  has  the  best  men. 

We  must  come  back  now  to  London.  Divines  and  Lords 
and  Commons  have  not  been  idle.  As  far  back  as  December, 
1640,  the  Long  Parliament,  in  its  first  year,  had  impeached 
Laud  on  an  indictment  having  fourteen  counts,  and  had 
tucked  him  away  nicely  in  the  Tower.  In  November,  1644, 
he  was  brought  out  of  prison  and  put  upon  his  trial  for  high 
treason  with  ten  additional  counts  against  him.  On  Janu- 
ary 10,  1645,  he  paid  the  penalty  of  his  crimes.  Macaulay 
says  of  his  execution : 

As  the  justice  of  the  country  had  been  something  satisfied  by  the 
death  of  the  criminal  Strafford,  it  would  have  done  honor  to  the 
Parliament  to  have  left  this  aged  prelate  the  example  of  their  mercy, 
rather  than  to  have  made  him  the  monument  of  their  justice.  Perpet- 
ual imprisonment,  with  no  more  than  a  decent  maintenance,  would 
have  taken  away  his  abihties  of  doing  further  mischief.  It  is  plain 
that  he  fell  a  sacrifice  to  the  intolerant  principle  of  the  Presbyterians, 
a  sect  who  breathed  as  fiery  a  spirit  of  persecution  as  himself. 

While  we  have  no  tears  to  waste  on  Laud,  that  very 
impersonation  of  ecclesiastical  and  political  tyranny,  that 


Cromwell  Demands  Religious  Toleration  263 

worse  criminal  than  Strafford,  that  fiend  incarnate,  when 
Puritans  or  others  crossed  his  will,  we  must  grant  the  full 
force  of  what  Macaulay  says  about  the  Presbyterians.  They 
had  control  in  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines.  They 
maintained  the  divine  right  of  Presbyterianism,  and  they 
did  their  utmost  to  commit  Parliament  to  the  rigid  enforce- 
ment of  their  ecclesiastical  system  by  civil  penalties.  Par- 
liament adopted  their  doctrinal  standards,  the  Confession 
and  the  Catechisms,  but  their  ecclesiasticism  Parliament 
did  not  nationalize.  Their  growing  power  in  Parliament, 
conjoined  with  intrigues  with  King  Charles  (now  a  prisoner 
in  Scotland),  would  have  foisted  Presbyterianism  upon 
the  nation,  and  with  it  an  enforced  conformity  as  intoler- 
ant, tyrannical,  and  merciless  as  that  of  Laud,  had  not 
Cromwell,  backed  by  his  army,  called  a  stay  in  the  pro- 
ceedings. His  word  was :  Gentlemen,  you  have  gone  far 
enough.  My  soldiers  and  I  believe  in  religious  toleration. 
We  have  not  exposed  our  lives  in  defense  of  civil  liberty, 
to  have  them  crushed  out  under  the  heel  of  ecclesiastical 
despotism.  Presbyterians  may  believe  in  the  divine  right 
of  their  system  as  much  as  they  please,  but  they  shall  never 
have  the  terrific  enginery  of  the  state  with  which  to  force 
their  system  upon  other  folks.  So  issue  was  joined 
between  Parliament  and  its  army.  It  is  a  long 
story,  but  the  outcome  was  that  the  Scotch  delivered  up  the 
king  to  the  English  Parliament.  He  was  conveyed  to 
Holmby  House  in  Northamptonshire.  A  month  later 
(April  17,  1647)  the  Commons  voted  the  army  to  be  dis- 
banded. That  army,  made  up  of  the  most  intelligent  body 
of  soldiers  that  ever  existed,  entertaining  republican  senti- 
ments as  regards  both  church  and  state,  was  not  disposed  to 
relapse  into  either  civil  or  ecclesiastical  slavery.  It  created 
a  council  of  its  own,  consisting  of  privates  and  officers. 


264  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  of  Charles  I 

Then  began  a  series  of  negotiations  between  king,  Parlia- 
ment, and  army — the  final  outcome  of  which  was  that  the 
army  seized  the  king,  marched  on  London,  purged  Parlia- 
ment of  its  Presbyterian  members,  and  brought  the  king  to 
trial.  The  exclusion  of  166  of  the  Commons  from  their 
seats,  leaving  about  sixty  Independents  in  power,  made  it 
easy  for  the  "Rump"  Parliament  to  vote  the  impeachment 
of  Charles.  A  popular  tribunal  was  created  before  which 
the  king  was  arraigned,  tried,  and  convicted.  On  January 
27,  1649,  the  king's  judges  brought  in  their  verdict,  the  last 
sentence  in  which  reads : 

For  all  which  treasons  and  crimes,  this  Court  doth  adjudge  that  he, 
the  said  Charles  Stuart,  as  a  tyrant,  traitor,  and  murderer,  and  a  public 
enemy,  shall  be  put  to  death,  by  severing  his  head  from  his  body. 

Three  days  later  the  king  stepped  upon  the  scaffold  that 
had  been  erected  upon  the  open  street. 

Having  made  a  speech,  he  submitted  to  the  block,  and  his  head 
was  severed  from  his  body  at  one  blow,  about  two  in  the  afternoon, 
in  the  forty-ninth  year  of  his  age,  and  the  twenty-fourth  of  his  reign. 

Upon  the  death  of  Charles  the  Commonwealth  was 
inaugurated.  The  executive  authority  was  vested  in  a 
council  of  state,  and  republicanism  became  the  heir  of 
monarchy. 

Just  here  we  may  well  stop,  and  look  about  us,  and 
inquire  where  we  are.  Where  are  the  English  sovereigns? 
Henry  and  Edward  and  Mary  and  Elizabeth  and  James 
and  Charles  are  dead. 

Where  are  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury?  Cranmer 
and  Pole  and  Parker  and  Grindal  and  Whitgift  and  Ban- 
croft and  Abbot  and  Laud  are  dead.  Four  years  ago,  Laud, 
the  worst  of  them  all,  expiated  his  misdeeds  on  the  block. 

Where  are  the  English  statesmen  ?  Wolsey  and  Thomas 
Cromwell  and  Somerset  and  Northumberland  and  Hamp- 


A  Look  Backward  and  About  265 

den  and  Buckingham  and  Strafford  are  dead.  Twenty- 
years  ago  and  more  Felton's  dagger  found  the  heart  of 
Buckingham,  the  worthless  favorite  of  James  and  Charles ; 
and  eight  years  ago  the  crowd  went  wild  with  joy  as  the 
head  of  Strafford  rolled  from  the  block. 

Where  are  the  great  divines  who  toiled  and  suffered  for 
a  reform  in  religion?  Rogers  and  Hooper  and  Ridley  and 
Latimer  and  Cranmer  and  Cartwright  and  Browne  and 
Reynolds  are  dead. 

Where  are  the  men  of  letters  whose  names  will  live  as 
long  as  the  English  tongue  is  spoken  ?  William  Shakespeare 
died  in  the  midst  of  the  reign  of  James  I,  the  greatest  of 
dramatists,  but  not  a  statesman,  nor  a  churchman,  and  in  no 
wise  connected  with  the  religious  or  the  political  excitements 
of  his  times.  Francis  Bacon  died  ten  years  after  Shake- 
speare, at  the  very  begining  of  the  reign  of  King  Charles, 
an  orator,  a  jurist,  a  statesman,  a  philosopher,  the  king's 
counselor,  solicitor-general,  attorney-general,  member  of  the 
Privy  Council,  keeper  of  the  Great  Seal,  lord  high  chan- 
cellor, the  greatest  man  of  England,  standing  on  the  highest 
pinnacle  of  greatness — then  the  tragic  fall,  accused  of 
accepting  bribes,  of  corrupting  judges,  of  official  dishonesty, 
of  political  chicanery  and  corruption,  his  confession  follow- 
ing, he  was  convicted,  fined,  imprisoned,  disgraced,  ruined ; 
the  greatest,  wisest,  meanest  of  mankind,  in  philosophy  a 
soaring  angel,  in  politics  a  creeping  snake.  John  Milton 
is  today  forty-one  years  old,  and  has  yet  to  live  twenty-five 
years  more.  Already  he  is  a  cultivated  musician,  a  classical 
scholar,  a  Greek  philosopher,  a  famous  poet,  an  eminent 
statesman,  a  political  and  religious  controversialist,  a  de- 
fender of  civil  liberty,  a  stout  opponent  of  the  Established 
Church,  a  pronounced  Puritan  after  the  stiff  and  sturdy 
Independent  type,  an  advocate  of  the  execution  of  King 


266  Puritanism  in  the  Reign  of  Charles  I 

Charles,  a  constant  friend  of  Oliver  Cromwell ;  and  twenty- 
five  years  yet  before  him  in  which  he  can  with  his  pen 
defend  the  acts  of  the  English  people  in  their  struggle  for 
liberty;  can  act  as  foreign  secretary  of  state  for  Cromwell; 
can  (though  now  blind)  pen  his  immortal  Paradise  Lost 
and  Paradise  Regained.  Five  volumes  of  prose  and  eight 
of  verse  attest  the  fruitfulness  of  his  pen  and  the  greatness 
of  his  genius. 

Where  now  is  that  Ecclesiastical  Establishment  which 
Elizabeth  and  Bancroft  and  Whitgift  and  Laud  toiled  so 
diabolically  to  force  upon  the  English  nation  ?  That  Episco- 
pal hierachy  is  wiped  out  of  existence.  So,  too,  are  the 
Court  of  High  Commission,  and  the  Act  of  Uniformity, 
and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  the  Thirty-nine 
Articles. 

Where  now  is  that  Presbyterian  Establishment  which 
Cartwright  and  Scotland  and  the  Westminster  Assembly 
would  have  forced  upon  the  English  people?  Cromwell 
and  the  army  and  the  Independents  have  come  into  power 
just  in  time  to  save  that  great  calamity. 


X 

PURITANISM  UNDER  CHARLES  II,  1660-85 


X 

PURITANISM  UNDER  CHARLES  II,  1660-85 
Oliver  Cromwell  went  to  heaven,  September  3,   1658. 
His  last  recorded  prayer,  of  any  length,  is  in  these  words : 

Lord,  though  I  am  a  miserable  and  wretched  creature,  I  am  in  cove- 
nant with  thee  through  grace,  and  I  may,  I  will,  come  to  thee.  For 
thy  people,  thou  hast  made  me,  though  very  unworthy,  a  mean  instru- 
ment to  do  them  some  good,  and  thee  service;  and  many  of  them 
have  set  too  high  a  value  upon  me,  though  others  wish  and  would  be 
glad  of  my  death.  But,  Lord,  however  thou  dost  dispose  of  me,  con- 
tinue and  go  on  to  do  good  for  them.  Give  them  consistency  of  judg- 
ment, one  heart,  and  mutual  love;  and  go  on  to  deliver  them,  and 
with  the  work  of  reformation;  and  make  the  name  of  Christ  glori- 
ous in  the  world.  Teach  those  who  look  too  much  upon  thy  instru- 
ments to  depend  more  upon  thyself;  pardon  such  as  desire  to 
trample  upon  the  dust  of  a  poor  worm,  for  they  are  thy  people  too; 
and  pardon  the  folly  of  this  short  prayer,  even  for  Jesus  Christ's 
sake;  and  give  us  a  good  night,  if  it  be  thy  pleasure. 

So  passed  away  the  greatest  ruler  England  ever  had; 
the  man  who  made  England  "more  respected  and  dreaded 
than  any  power  in  Christendom;"  the  man  whose  sole 
ambition  was  to  give  England  civil  and  religious  liberty ;  the 
man  for  two  centuries  branded  as  a  fanatic,  a  hypocrite,  a 
tyrant,  but  in  these  late  days  beginning  to  be  reckoned  at  his 
true  worth,  looked  upon  now  as  John  Milton  looked  upon 
him  then,  seen  to  be  God's  own  man,  doing  God's  own  work, 
in  God's  own  way — the  called  and  anointed  of  God  to  do 
God's  bidding. 

Cromwell  was  succeeded  in  the  protectorate  by  his  son, 
Richard.  Soon  the  factions,  which  his  father  had  held  in 
check,  became  too  powerful,  and  the  abdication  of  Richard 
was  followed  by  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts. 

269 


270  Puritanism  Under  Charles  II 

April  14,  1660,  Charles  II  sent  over  from  Breda  in 
Holland  a  Declaration  to  the  effect  that  there  should  be  a 
general  amnesty,  that  the  people  should  enjoy  liberty  of 
religious  belief,  that  forfeited  estates  should  remain  in  the 
possession  of  their  present  holders,  and  that  the  arrears  due 
to  the  army  should  be  liquidated.  Ten  days  later  the  "Con- 
vention Parliament"  met,  numbering  556  members.  The 
Declaration  of  Breda  was  looked  upon  with  favor,  and  on 
May  I  the  restoration  of  Charles  Stuart  was  voted.  The 
Republicans  had  tried  to  avert  this  issue,  but  in  vain.  Milton 
had  issued  his  pamphlet  setting  forth  "a  ready  and  easy 
way  to  establish  a  commonwealth"  and  implored  the  people 
not  to  let  his  written  sentences  prove  "the  last  words  of 
expiring  liberty."  But  the  nation  would  not  be  satisfied 
without  a  re-establishment  of  monarchy.  Only  a  small 
minority  regretted  the  invitation  extended  to  Charles  to 
reascend  the  throne  of  his  fathers.  For  various  reasons 
the  various  classes  and  interests  of  English  society  found 
themselves  at  one — in  cordial  and  enthusiastic  harmony — 
on  this  decision  to  recall  the  Stuarts.  Many  were  tired  of 
the  domination  of  the  army.  Almost  any  government  would 
be  better  than  military  rule  or  irritating  military  interfer- 
ence with  the  free  action  of  the  nation's  chosen  representa- 
tives. 

The  Romanists  had  every  reason  to  believe  that  their 
condition  and  chances  would  be  improved  under  a  Stuart 
dynasty.  The  Royalists  had  always  hated  Cromwell  and  the 
Commonwealth,  and  were  ardently  attached  to  monarchical 
institutions.  The  Presbyterians  looked  with  aversion  on 
the  tolerant  maxims  and  policy  of  the  Protector.  They 
could  never  forgive  him  for  frustrating  their  cherished 
schemes  of  ecclesiastical  supremacy  and  control,  and  for  the 
liberty  he  accorded  to  the  various  religious  sects  in  the  teeth 


Reaction  Against  Puritanical  Austerities  271 

of  their  "divine  right  of  Presbyterianism."  The  Episco- 
pahans  felt  that  their  fortunes  would  surely  take  on  a 
brighter  look  under  kingly  rule,  since  "no  bishop,  no  king" 
had  been  handed  down  as  an  accepted  maxim  in  the  Stuart 
family. 

And  the  people  generally  were  glad  to  escape  the  aus- 
terities of  Puritan — puritanical — morality.  Give  us  a  rest 
from  these  intolerable  interferences  with  private  and  social 
life.  It  is  possible  to  go  too  far  in  trying  to  legislate 
uprightness  and  piety  into  folks,  and  the  Puritans  went  too 
far,  and  the  reaction  came  on  apace.  When  Puritanism 
goes  so  far  as  to  decree  that  "no  persoii  shall  be  employed 
but  such  as  the  House  is  satisfied  of  his  real  godliness ;" 
that  books  in  the  royal  libraries  which  contain  pictures  of 
Jesus  or  Mary  shall  be  burned;  that  sculpture  representing 
nymphs  and  graces  shall  be  destroyed  or  rechiseled;  that 
public  amusements  of  all  sorts  shall  be  discontinued;  that 
bear-baiting,  rope-dancing,  wrestling-matches,  horse-racing, 
stage-acting,  puppet-shows,  and  ball-playing  shall  be  ac- 
counted criminal  offenses  and  severely  punished ;  that  sports 
on  the  village  green  shall  be  accounted  scandalous  and  every 
Maypole  be  hewn  down;  that  Christmas  shall  be  converted 
into  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  and  that  all  men  shall  keep 
it,  as  Macaulay  says,  "in  humbly  bemoaning  the  great 
national  sin  which  they  and  their  fathers  had  so  often  com- 
mitted on  that  day  by  romping  under  the  mistletoe,  eating 
boar's  head,  and  drinking  ale  flavored  with  roasted  apples;" 
when  Puritan  parliaments  go  as  far  as  this,  and  farther,  in 
trying  to  legislate  ethics  and  piety ;  when,  as  we  read  in  the 
Comic  Dramatists  of  the  Restoration,  the  outward  signs  of 
sanctity  came  to  be  a  plain  dress,  short  hair,  unstarched 
linen,  pine  benches,  and  wooden-bottom  chairs,  a  talking 
through  the  nose,  a  showing  the  whites  of  the  eyes,  a  naming 


272  Puritanism  Under  Charles  II 

the  children  Assurance,  and  Patience,  and  Praise-God,  and 
Tribulation ;  an  avoiding  of  Spring  Garden  when  in  London 
and  abstaining  from  hunting  and  hawking  when  in  the 
country;  when  civil  government  pushes  its  overstrained 
austerities  to  such  senseless  extremes  as  these,  it  ceases  to 
excite  our  wonder  that  the  people  should  welcome  a  change 
of  administration,  and  that  in  the  moral  reaction  a  period 
of  wild  and  desperate  dissoluteness  should  follow. 

So  Charles  II  was  called  to  instate  himself  in  the  throne 
made  vacant  by  his  father's  death.  Eleven  years  of  army 
and  Cromwellian  and  Independent  rule  had  been  all  the 
nation  could  endure.  On  May  26,  1660,  Charles  landed  at 
Dover.  The  people  received  him  with  unbounded  enthu- 
siasm and  with  the  wildest  transports  of  joy.  No  pen  can 
picture  the  intoxication  of  delight  with  which  the  English 
masses  of  high  and  low  degree  welcomed  back  the  restored 
and  triumphant  monarch.  Then  followed  twenty-five  years 
under  Charles  II  and  three  under  his  brother,  James  II — 
"the  darkest  and  most  disgraceful  in  English  annals." 

It  remains,  in  the  briefest  manner,  to  indicate  the  grounds 
on  which  this  indictment  rests.  Not  to  follow  a  chronologi- 
cal order,  our  object  can  be  attained  by  reviewing  the  for- 
tunes of  our  old  acquaintances,  and  taking  a  look  at  the  new 
actors  in  the  drama. 

First,  the  men  who  had  been  concerned  in  the  execution 
of  Charles  I,  the  regicides.  In  the  first  year  of  the  new 
king,  the  murderers  of  his  father,  as  they  were  called, 
were  brought  to  trial  before  a  court  of  thirty-four  com- 
missioners. Some  had  died  and  others  had  fled,  but  ten 
were  arrested,  convicted,  and  executed,  meeting  death 
courageously,  and  proud  of  the  cause  in  which  they  suffered. 
Two  months  later,  Parliament  enacted  that  the  bodies  of 
Oliver  Cromwell,  John  Bradshaw,  and  Henry  Ireton  should 


The  Regicides  and  the  Army  273 

be  taken  from  their  graves,  and  be  hanged  upon  the  gallows 
at  Tyburn.  Accordingly  the  corpses  were  dragged  from  their 
coffins,  drawn  on  hurdles  to  the  place  appointed,  gibbeted 
from  sunrise  to  sunset,  the  heads  were  set  on  poles  at  the  top 
of  Westminster  Hall,  and  the  trunks  were  buried  together 
under  the  Tyburn  gallows.  The  next  year,  1661,  by  the 
king's  order,  the  remains  of  Cromwell's  mother,  and  of  his 
daughter  (Mrs.  Claypole),  and  the  bodies  of  about  twenty 
others  were  removed  from  the  Westminster  Abbey  and 
buried  in  the  churchyard.  Vane,  whom  the  king  had 
promised  on  his  honor  to  pardon,  paid  with  his  life  the 
penalty  of  friendly  relations  with  regicides,  and  many  others 
were  drawn  with  ropes  about  their  necks  through  the  streets 
of  London  and  committed  to  the  Tower  as  prisoners  for 
life.    The  estates  of  all  were  forfeited  to  the  crown. 

Secondly,  the  army.  The  army,  consisting  in  the  three 
kingdoms  of  about  sixty  thousand  men,  was  paid  off  in 
keeping  with  one  of  the  terms  of  the  Declaration  of  Breda, 
and  gradually  disbanded,  with  the  exception  of  Monk's 
regiment  and  some  others,  about  five  thousand  soldiers,  who 
form  the  beginning,  under  the  name  of  "guards,"  of  Eng- 
land's present  standing  army.  Thus  perished  the  glorious 
Ironsides  of  Cromwell's  day,  the  troops  who  never  knew 
defeat,  the  safeguard  of  threatened  Protestants  in  every 
corner  of  Europe,  the  glory  of  England,  and  the  fear  of  the 
world. 

Thirdly,  the  Independents.  They  went  down  in  the  gen- 
eral crash.  Royalists,  Episcopalians,  Presbyterians,  Roman- 
ists, seemed  to  vie  with  each  other  to  heap  contempt  upon 
their  devoted  heads,  and  not  contempt  merely,  but  insult  and 
torture  and  slaughter.  Let  them  be  hanged  and  half  hanged, 
quartered  and  emboweled,  until  they  shall  be  so  broken  and 
crushed  and  scattered  as  never  to  rise  again.    It  looked  as 


2  74  Puritanism  Under  Charles  II 

though  Independency  had  seen  its  last  day.  Not  until  the 
black  and  ugly  storm  had  spent  its  force,  did  a  star  of  hope 
appear. 

Fourthly,  the  Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians.  The 
Presbyterians  were  among  the  foremost  in  urging  the  return 
of  Charles.  When  the  great  king  appeared,  and  hats  went 
up,  and  bonfires  were  kindled,  and  flags  were  waved,  and 
bells  were  rung,  and  throats  were  split  with  cheering,  and 
the  gutters  ran  with  ale,  the  Presbyterians  had,  with  the  rest, 
been  carried  off  their  feet  in  this  whirlwind  of  patriotic 
sentiment.  They  indulged  the  strongest  hope  of  royal  favor, 
even  the  insane  expectation  that  Charles  would  adopt  their 
discipline  as  the  national  creed. 

Then  the  contest  began  between  Presbyterians  and 
Episcopalians  which  in  a  few  months  ended  in  the  utter 
discomfiture  of  the  former.  King  and  Parliament  failed 
them  in  their  hour  of  need  and  expected  victory,  and  they 
fell  almost  as  low  as  the  Independents,  whom  they  despised. 
On  the  day  that  Parliament  met,  May  8,  1661,  Convoca- 
tion assembled  in  St.  Paul's  and  confirmed  the  form  of 
Common  Prayer,  and  made  sundry  additions  to  the  liturgy. 
Two  weeks  later,  both  houses  of  Parliament  ordered  the 
burning  of  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  in  London  and 
Westminster.  This  was  accordingly  done  by  the  common 
hangman  two  days  later  in  the  city,  and  afterward  all  over 
England. 

Presbyterian  Scotland  was  forced  into  episcopacy.  Four 
ministers,  coming  to  London,  were  ordained  and  afterward 
consecrated  bishops.  The  Scottish  Privy  Council  forbade 
all  meetings  of  synods  and  presbyteries.  The  Scottish  Par- 
liament rescinded  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant.  Thus 
all  the  Scotch  had  been  contending  for,  for  thirty  years,  was 
undone  in  nearly  as  many  days.    The  Presbyterians  met  and 


Episcopacy  Triumphs  Over  Preshyterianism  275 

murmured  in  conventicles ;  but  to  them,  as  to  the  Independ- 
ents, there  came  a  day  of  dehverance — a  deHverance  attained 
only  after  countless  struggles  and  sufferings.  The  Scots 
Worthies  and  the  Cloud  of  Witnesses  record  the  deeds  and 
dying  testimonies  of  heroic  men  who  laid  down  their  lives 
for  "Christ's  crown  and  covenant." 

So  once  more  the  Episcopalians  are  to  have  it  all  their 
own  way,  and  speedily  it  becomes  their  way  with  a  ven- 
geance. Laud's  old  doctrine  of  non-resistance  and  passive 
obedience  is  taken  up  again,  and  the  monarch  and  Cavaliers 
and  churchmen  join  in  forcing  upon  every  official  in  the 
realm  the  tenet  that 

the  most  high  and  sacred  order  of  kings  is  of  divine  right,  being  the 
ordinance  of  God  himself,  and  that  for  subjects  to  offer  resistance 
to  their  king  or  question  his  doings,  on  any  pretense  whatsoever,  is 
worthy  of  damnation. 

In  maintaining  this  political  dogma  the  Commons  were 
more  earnest  and  pronounced  than  the  king  himself;  and 
the  Episcopal  bishops  and  clergy  far  outstripped  the  Com- 
mons in  the  extravagance  and  fury  with  which  they  upheld 
and  pushed  it.  Under  no  conceivable  circumstances,  in  no 
imaginable  extremity,  would  it  be  permissible  to  resist  the 
royal  authority.  Suppose  the  king  should  become  a  hor- 
rible despot,  should  trample  every  English  law  in  the  dust, 
should  outrage  the  simplest  and  holiest  principles  of  justice, 
should  commit  innocent  victims  to  dungeons,  to  tortures, 
to  slaughter,  should  do  this  daily,  should  do  it  to  hundreds 
or  even  thousands — would  it  not  be  right  to  force  him  to 
stop?  The  Church  of  England  answered.  No.  The  bishops 
said  that  a  forcible  interference  would  be  damnable!  In 
after-years  these  very  men  belied  their  theories,  and  stood 
in  arms  against  their  sovereign.  But  now  they  could  afford 
to  be  insanely  loyal,  since  from  the  Commons,  by  the  favor 


276  Puritanism  Under  Charles  II 

of  the  crown,  they  were  regaining  all  their  old-time  pre- 
rogatives.   As  one  of  the  historians  has  said : 

It  seemed  to  the  established  church  impossible  that  a  time  would 
ever  come  when  the  ties  which  bound  her  to  the  children  of  her 
august  martyr  (i.  e.,  Charles  I)  would  be  sundered,  and  when  the 
loyalty  in  which  she  gloried  would  cease  to  be  a  pleasing  and  profit- 
able duty. 

Note  the  steps  by  which  the  Episcopalians  regained  the 
ascendency.  In  May,  1660,  Charles  II  was  restored  to 
kingship.  In  October  the  army  was  disbanded.  In  Janu- 
ary, 1661,  the  corpse  of  Cromwell  was  disinterred, 
hanged,  and  beheaded;  and  the  Covenant  was  abolished  in 
Scotland.  In  May  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant  was 
burned  in  England.  In  November  the  Corporation  Act  was 
passed,  requiring  all  magistrates  and  officers  to  abjure  the 
Covenant  and  to  take  an  oath  declaring  it  illegal  to  bear 
arms  against  the  king.  In  the  same  year  the  bishops  were 
restored  to  their  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords.  In  May, 
1662,  the  Act  of  Uniformity  was  adopted,  and  went  into 
operation  the  August  following,  and  was  entitled,  "An 
Act  for  the  Uniformity  of  Public  Prayers  and  Adminis- 
tration of  Sacraments,  and  for  Establishing  the  Forms  of 
Making,  Ordaining,  and  Consecrating  Bishops,  Priests,  and 
Deacons  in  the  Church  of  England."  It  required  a  declara- 
tion of  assent  and  consent  to  all  and  everything  prescribed 
and  contained  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  together 
with  all  its  rites  and  ceremonies.  Its  enforcement  cost 
2,000  non-conforming  ministers  their  pulpits  and  their 
livings. 

In  May,  1664  (two  years  later),  the  Conventicle  Act 
was  passed.  It  provided  that  persons  peremptorily  refusing 
to  attend  the  Episcopal  church  should  be  banished,  and  if 
they  returned  they  should  be  executed.    It  further  provided 


Uniformily,  Conventicle,  Five- Mile  Acts  277 

that  if  any  person  should  be  caught  at  a  conventicle  where 
five  or  more  persons  were  present,  for  the  first  offense  he 
should  be  imprisoned  three  months ;  for  the  second  offense, 
six  months;  for  the  third  offense  he  should  be  banished; 
and  in  case  he  returned,  he  should  suffer  death  without 
benefit  of  clergy. 

In  October,  1665,  the  "Five-Mile  Act"  became  law.  It 
provided  that  non-conforming  ministers  should  not  come  or 
be  within  five  miles  of  any  city,  town  corporate,  or  borough 
that  sends  burgesses  to  Parliament,  or  within  five  miles  of 
any  parish,  town,  or  place,  where  they  have  preached  in 
conventicles.  Any  two  justices  of  the  peace  are  empowered 
to  commit  such  offenders  to  prison  for  six  months  without 
bail. 

By  the  Act  of  Uniformity  2,000  clergymen,  on  a  single 
day,  were  expelled  from  their  parishes.  There  is  no  time 
to  speak  of  their  privations  and  suft'erings;  of  their  secret 
meetings  for  prayer  and  praise — meetings  in  upper  cham- 
bers, with  fastened  doors,  with  closed  shutters,  with 
extinguished  candles,  with  whispered  sermons,  with 
stationed  guards ;  no  time  to  speak  of  the  discoveries  of 
their  hiding-places,  their  arrests,  the  cruelties  of  magis- 
trates, the  loathsome  dungeons,  and  the  heartless  banish- 
ments. 

To  accomplish  this  purging  of  Holy  Church  the  best 
men  in  England  were  turned  out,  and  their  places  were 
filled  with  boys,  with  informers,  with  laymen,  with  the 
illiterate  and  debauched.  Call  to  mind  a  few  of  the  worth- 
ies who  suffered  in  those  days,  who  made  the  slimy  prisons 
of  England  glorious,  and  the  authors  of  their  misery 
infamous.  Richard  Baxter,  author  of  Saints'  Everlasting 
Rest  and  Call  to  the  Unconverted,  and  one  hundred  and 
sixty-six  other  works,  ejected  from  his  parish  and  hunted 


278  Puritanism  Under  Charles  II 

like  a  felon  by  the  minions  of  tyranny.  John  Howe, 
graduate  of  Oxford,  author  of  the  best  work  on  the  Holy 
Spirit  ever  written,  driven  from  his  place  by  the  Act  of  Uni- 
formity. I  cannot  dwell  on  these  names;  but  think  of 
Matthew  Poole  and  Theophilus  Gale,  and  Thomas  Manton, 
and  Joseph  Alleine,  and  Edward  Calamy,  and  Thomas 
Goodwin,  and  John  Ray,  and  John  Flavel,  and  John  Owen, 
and  John  Bunyan,  and  that  long  list  of  Puritan  divines 
whose  holy  lives  and  profound  writings  will  influence  the 
world  for  good  as  long  as  time  shall  last.  And  then  think 
of  kings  and  Cavaliers  and  churchmen  who  would  deprive 
and  degrade  and  imprison  and  torture  these  men  of  God  in 
the  name  of  truth  and  religion ! 

While  this  Jehu  zeal  is  building  up  a  national  church, 
and  enforcing  a  conformity  and  a  uniformity  down  to  the 
cut  of  a  bishop's  collar  and  the  bend  of  a  layman's  knee, 
what  is  the  moral  outcome  of  it  all  in  the  everyday  living 
of  king,  court,  and  people  ? 

First,  the  king.  Would  he  lie?  Yes.  Swear?  Yes. 
Drink?  Yes.  Gamble?  Yes.  Seduce?  Yes.  Was  there 
any  vice  in  the  catalogue  to  which  he  was  not  addicted? 
I  cannot  think  of  one.  Was  he  good-natured,  witty,  free 
and  easy?  Yes.  Had  he  any  of  those  qualities  of  charac- 
ter which  the  Puritans  held  in  high  esteem?  No.  Did  he 
indulge  himself  in  all  those  forms  of  dissipation  which  the 
Puritans  abominated?  Yes.  Did  he  have  a  wife?  Yes. 
Was  he  true  to  her?  No.  Did  he  keep  mistresses?  Yes. 
Did  he  bring  his  harlots  from  France  and  Italy?  Yes.  Did 
he  lavish  favors  upon  them  in  the  most  prodigal  fashion? 
Yes.  Did  he  have  children  by  them?  Yes.  Did  everybody 
know  of  these  sensual  indulgences?  Yes.  Was  he  rotten 
in  moral  character  ?  Yes.  Greene  says : 
The   one   thing   he    seemed    in   earnest    about   was    sensual    pleasure. 


Immorality  of  Charles  and  the  Court  279 

Mistress  followed  mistress,  and  the  guilt  of  a  troop  of  profligate 
women    was    blazoned    to     the    world    by    the    gift    of    titles     and 

estates One   of   his   courtesans   became   duchess   of    St.   Albans, 

another  duchess  of  Cleveland,  another  duchess  of  Portsmouth,  and  so 
on  through  a  long  list ;  and  the  royal  bastards  were  set  among  Eng- 
lish  nobles No   thought  of   remorse   or   of   shame   seems   ever 

to  have  crossed  his  mind. 

How  was  it  with  his  court  ?  The  courtiers  followed  the 
example  of  their  king.  They  attended  brothels  and  gamb- 
ling-hells, but  not  conventicles.  And  how  was  it  with  the 
people?  They  followed  the  example  of  king  and  court.  It 
was  not  vice  half  concealed  and  gilded,  as  in  corrupt  French 
society,  but  English  vice,  open,  coarse,  naked.  Under  the 
Commonwealth  men  were  virtuous,  or  at  least  were  com- 
pelled to  wear  the  guise  of  virtue.  With  the  Restoration 
there  came  an  instantaneous  change  in  the  moral  habits  of 
the  people.  Puritan  restraints  removed,  vice  stalked 
through  the  streets  without  disguise.  King  and  court  set 
the  fashion.  Charles,  Buckingham,  Rochester,  Sedley,  and 
the  others  were  chiefly  distinguished  for  their  wit  and 
libertinism.  Licentiousness  and  debauchery  became  uni- 
versally prevalent.  Delicacy,  sentiment,  love,  had  no  part 
in  the  relations  of  the  sexes.  Vulgar  coarseness  and  in- 
decency and  obscene  jesting  and  animal  passion  bore  open 
sway.  The  polite  literature  of  the  day  became  so  impolite 
that  it  would  be  a  disgrace  today  to  be  caught  reading  it. 
The  stage  gained  all  its  glory  from  its  nastiness.  The 
favorite  actresses  were  the  mistresses  of  the  nobility.  Two 
of  the  king's  concubines  came  from  the  theater.  So 
enthralled  was  he  by  their  fascinating  society  that  he  could 
not  be  dragged  to  attend  upon  affairs  of  state.  It  was  the 
era  of  Comus  and  Bacchus,  and  Aphrodite;  the  era  of  the 
baud  and  of  the  debauchee.     Chesterfield  is  said  to  have 


28o  Puritanism  Under  Charles  II 

poisoned  his  wife,  the  fatal  dose  administered  in  the  wine 
of  the  communion.  To  the  king  himself  is  imputed  an 
incestuous  connection  with  his  own  sister  Henrietta.  The 
duke  of  Buckingham,  enamored  of  the  wife  of  the  earl  of 
Shrewsbury,  killed  him  in  a  duel,  and  then  slept  with  his 
adulterous  paramour  the  same  night,  in  the  bloody  shirt  in 
which  he  had  slain  her  husband. 

When  God  sent  that  awful  plague  to  London,  that 
ghastly  scourge  in  which  four  thousand  died  in  a  single 
night,  ten  thousand  in  a  month,  and  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  in  all,  it  checked  these  impious  revels  only  for  a 
season.  The  lazar-house  was  not  cleansed.  King  and 
court  and  people  plunged  again  into  their  wild  excesses. 
When  the  great  fire  visited  the  metropolis,  laying  two- 
thirds  of  the  city  in  ruins,  the  king  and  his  nobility  could 
exert  themselves  to  stay  the  conflagration,  but  before  the 
ashes  were  cold  they  could  return  to  toy  with  their  mis- 
tresses. 

Thus  things  ran  on  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  No 
mention  has  been  made  of  the  king's  foreign  policy,  the 
most  disastrous  and  disgraceful  in  English  annals.  It  is 
all  summed  up  in  this  one  sentence :  The  king  cringed  to 
his  rival,  Louis  XIV,  that  he  might  trample  on  his  people, 
sank  into  a  viceroy  of  France,  and  pocketed  with  com- 
placent infamy  her  degrading  insults  and  her  more  degrad- 
ing gold — gold  needed  that  he  might  gratify  his  sensual 
propensities.  But  the  end  came  at  last.  Let  us  view  the 
closing  scene  as  portrayed  by  Macaulay.  [See  Macaulay's 
History  of  England,  Vol.  I,  chap.  4.] 


XI 
THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  AND  PURITANISM 


XI 

THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH  AND  PURITANISM » 

HENRY  VIII 

Luther's  ninety-five  theses  were  posted  in  15 17.  Three 
years  later  came  his  famous  treatise  On  the  Babylonian 
Captivity  in  which  he  repudiated  the  pope's  authority  and 
five  of  the  seven  sacraments.  Against  Luther  the  king 
of  England  took  up  the  cudgels  in  his  Assertion  of  the 
Seven  Sacraments,  which  won  for  him  from  Leo  X  the 
title  ''Defender  of  the  Faith,"  and  from  Luther  the  sting- 
ing sneer,  "When  God  wants  a  fool,  he  turns  a  king  into  a 
theological  writer."  In  doctrine  Henry  VIII  remained  a 
Romanist  to  the  end  of  his  days.  In  his  last  hours,  with 
unwavering  faith,  he  sought  the  intercession  of  Mary  and 
the  saints,  and  in  his  will  he  provided  for  the  saying  of 
masses  for  his  soul  "perpetually  while  the  world  shall 
stand."  The  noteworthy  thing  in  the  reign  of  Henry  is 
that,  retaining  the  pope's  doctrine,  he  rejected  the  pope's 
supremacy.  When  the  title,  "On  earth  the  supreme  head 
of  the  Church  of  England"  (1535),  was  added  to  the  king's 
style,  Henry  himself  assumed  the  place  hitherto  held  by  the 
Roman  pontiff.  By  this  revolution  the  old  autonomy  was 
destroyed,  and  the  English  church  gained  an  independent 
organic  life.  The  significance  of  this  severance  from  Rome 
it  is  impossible  to  overestimate;  but  it  did  next  to  nothing 

^  Read  before  the  Ministers'  Institute  at  the  Divinity  School,  The 
University  of  Chicago,  March  28,  1905.  The  occasion  of  this  and  the 
following  lecture  explains  the  repetition  of  some  material  previously  given 
in  the  author's  classroom  lectures. 

283 


284  The  Anglican  Church  and  ^Puritanism 

for  the  reformation  of  religion.  The  old  practices,  super- 
stitions, and  cruelties  were  still  retained.  It  prepared  the 
way,  however,  for  the  real  reformation,  which  came  in  the 
following  reign. 

EDWARD  VI 

The  sympathies  of  Edward,  the  boy  king,  were  alto- 
gether Protestant,  and  through  his  state  and  church 
advisers  the  new  religion  was  speedily  introduced.  It  took 
definite  form  in  a  Book  of  Common  Prayer  compiled  out 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  service-books  previously  in  use, 
translated  into  English.  The  compilers  mixed  in  popish 
ingredients  to  make  it  less  unpalatable  to  Catholics,  and 
they  omitted  as  many  popish  superstitions  as  prudence 
seemed  to  dictate.  Their  policy  was  one  of  gradual  advance. 
They  intended  better  things  when  the  people  were  pre- 
pared for  them. 

After  the  issue  of  the  first  book,  Protestant  sentiment 
grew  apace,  and  this  first  book  was  displaced,  three  years 
later,  by  a  second.  Its  marked  improvements  are  to  be 
attributed  chiefly  to  the  influence  of  the  continental  reform- 
ers, who  aided  in  its  revision.  It  still  contained  some  dregs 
of  popery,  but  it  was  much  more  scriptural,  less  papistical, 
than  the  Church  of  England  has  ever  been  since.  Eliza- 
beth changed  it  for  the  worse,  dragging  it  back  toward 
popery;  Charles  II  did  the  same.  The  book  in  use  in  the 
closing  days  of  Edward  VI  was  more  Protestant  and 
reformed  than  the  book  in  use  today  under  his  namesake, 
Edward  VII. 

The  issuing  of  these  Prayer-Books  was  followed,  in 
each  instance,  by  an  Act  of  Uniformity.  The  bishops  were 
enjoined  "to  call  in,  burn,  deface,  and  destroy  all  the  old 
church  books,  the  keeping  whereof  would  be  a  let  to  the 


The  Reactionary  Policy  of  Mary  285 

use  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer."  King,  council,  and 
Parliament  used  all  their  power  rigidly  to  enforce  the  exact 
observance  of  the  prescribed  ritual.  Every  Englishman 
must  worship  God  after  the  ordained  fashion;  in  no  wise 
deviate  from  the  established  order;  and  take  no  account  of 
tender  consciences. 

Following  the  second  Prayer-Book  came  the  "Forty- 
two  Articles  of  Religion,"  which,  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  were 
reduced  to  thirty-nine,  constituting  to  this  day  the  doc- 
trinal basis  of  the  Church  of  England.  The  bishops  and 
clergy  and  the  members  of  the  universities  were  required 
to  make  subscription.  The  articles  provided  for  uniform 
belief,  as  the  Prayer-Book  provided  for  uniform  worship. 
Thus,  by  the  grace  of  king  and  Parliament,  the  English 
people  were  furnished  out  of  hand  with  a  form  of  service 
and  a  system  of  faith  to  which  it  was  unlawful  to  take  the 
slightest  exception. 

MARY 

But  suddenly  this  ecclesiastical  scheme  was  completely 
upset,  on  the  death  of  Edward,  by  the  accession  of  his  sister 
Mary.  The  reactionary  policy  of  the  daughter  of  Cather- 
ine brought  ruin  to  the  Protestant  cause.  On  bended  knees 
the  two  houses  of  Parliament  implored  restoration  to  papal 
favor  and  entrance  again  into  the  Roman  fold.  The  jails 
and  dungeons  were  quickly  filled  with  Englishmen  tainted 
with  Protestant  heresy.  Nearly  a  thousand  leading  spirits 
— bishops,  professors,  preachers,  and  nobles — fled  for  their 
lives  into  foreign  parts.  Rogers  and  Taylor,  Latimer  and 
Ridley,  Hooper  and  Cranmer,  and  two  hundred  and  eighty 
more,  were  burned  at  the  stake.  Popery  had  done  its 
work,  and  the  English  nation  was  filled  with  horror  and 
disg-ust. 


286  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

ELIZABETH 

When  Elizabeth  came  to  the  throne  there  dawned  a  new 
era  for  Protestant  Christianity.  Her  first  parhament  passed 
two  acts  of  immense  importance,  the  "Act  of  Supremacy" 
and  the  "Act  of  Uniformity."  By  the  first  the  queen  was 
made  all  that  the  pope  had  been  in  other  days.  With  the 
court  of  Rome  all  connection  of  whatever  sort  was  wholly 
and  forever  broken.  In  the  place  of  the  pope  the  queen 
was  made  supreme,  and  to  this  supremacy  were  attached 
all  honors,  dignities,  immunities,  profits,  and  commodities 
to  the  church  appertaining.  To  her  was  given  full 
power  and  authority  to  visit,  repress,  redress,  reform,  order,  correct, 
restrain,  and  amend  all  such  errors,  heresies,  abuses,  contempts,  and 
enormities,  whatsoever  they  be,  which,  by  any  manner  of  spiritual 
authority  or  jurisdiction,  ought  or  may  be  lawfully  reformed, 
repressed,  ordered,  corrected,  restrained,  or  amended  most  to  the 
pleasure  of  almighty  God  and  increase  of  virtue  in  Christ's  religion, 
and  for  the  conservation  of  peace,  unity,  and  tranquillity  of  this 
realm ;  any  usage,  custom,  foreign  law,  foreign  authority,  prescrip- 
tion, or  anything  or  things  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

Attached  to  this  "Act  of  Supremacy"  was  a  clause 
which  authorized  the  queen  to  appoint  a  Court  of  High 
Commission,  to  whose  keeping  and  control  the  religion  of 
every  Englishman  should  be  unreservedly  committed.  To 
this  court  was  given  the  right  and  power,  under  Elizabeth, 
of  course, 

to  use,  occupy,  and  exercise  all  manner  of  jurisdiction,  privileges, 
and  pre-eminences,  touching  any  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
within  the  realms  of  England  and  Ireland,  to  visit,  reform,  redress, 
order,  correct,  and  amend  all  errors,  heresies,  schisms,  abuses,  con- 
tempts, ofifenses,  and  enormities  whatsoever. 

While  this  legislation  was  being  enacted  which  vested 
supreme  ecclesiastical  power  in  the  queen's  hands,  a  commis- 
sion was  hard  at  work  fixing  up  an  English  Prayer-Book. 


Elizabeth  Rules  the  Church  287 

They  wished  to  propitiate  the  lovers  of  the  Reformation 
by  the  restoration  of  the  reformed  worship,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  concihate  the  Romanists  by  eHminating 
such  anti-papal  sentiments  as  had  found  place  in  Edward's 
Service-Books.  This  revised  book,  having  been  doctored 
to  the  queen's  liking,  and  then  still  further  doctored  by  her 
in  council,  received  in  due  course  the  sanction  of  Parlia- 
ment. 

By  the  ''Act  of  Uniformity" — the  second  immensely 
important  act  passed  by  Elizabeth's  first  parliament — the 
exact  observance  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  became 
the  law  of  the  land.  The  "Act  of  Uniformity"  went  into 
operation  seven  months  and  seven  days  after  the  death  of 
"Bloody  Mary."  In  one  brief  half-year  the  English  church 
passed  from  the  obedience  of  Pope  Paul  IV  to  the  obedience 
of  "Pope  Elizabeth  I."  When  she  became  queen  she  sent  to 
him  an  ambassador  to  announce  her  accession,  by  whom  he 
sent  back  the  haughty  answer  that  "to  the  Holy  See  and  not 
to  her  belonged  the  throne,  to  which  she  had  no  right  as 
being  a  bastard."  In  less  than  a  year  she  showed  to  him  that 
both  state  and  church,  queen  and  pope,  centered  and  lived 
in  her  own  sweet,  virgin  self  alone. 

This,  then,  was  the  English  church  as  by  law  estab- 
lished. Its  doctrines  were  found  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles 
and  its  forms  of  worship  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
By  act  of  Parliament  a  church  was  created  coextensive 
with  the  nation,  from  the  exactions  of  which  there  was  no 
escape,  and  membership  in  which  embraced  all  English 
subjects. 

Now,  in  the  constituency  of  this  all-embracing  church 
the  members  were  not  all  of  one  mind.  There  were  those 
who  were  wholly  pleased  with  Elizabeth's  establishment, 
those  who  were  wholly  displeased,   and  those  who  were 


288  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

partly  pleased  and  partly  offended.  The  Anglicans  felt  that 
the  reformation  had  gone  just  far  enough,  and  wished 
things  to  remain  exactly  as  they  were.  The  Romanists  felt 
that  the  reformation  had  already  gone  far  more  than  far 
enough,  and  longed  for  a  retrograde  movement.  The  Puri- 
tans felt  that  the  reformation  had  not  gone  far  enough,  and 
were  determined  to  push  it  farther.  All  alike,  Anglicans, 
Romanists,  and  Puritans,  were  members  of  the  one  organ- 
ized, legalized,  national  establishment. 

The  fortunes  of  the  Romanists  are  of  interest  and 
moment,  but,  lying  entirely  outside  the  limits  of  the  present 
inquiry,  they  are  properly  enough  left  unnoticed.  In  this 
survey  our  direct  concern  is  with  the  Puritans  and  with 
their  struggle  for  a  freedom  which  the  Anglicans  would 
not  permit  them  to  enjoy. 

During  Mary's  reign  of  terror  those  Protestants,  who 
escaped  the  dungeon  and  the  stake,  sought  hiding-places  at 
home  or  fled  beyond  the  seas.  No  sooner  was  Mary  dead 
and  Elizabeth  in  power  than  these  persecuted  ones  who 
had  been  in  hiding,  whose  lurking-places  Mary's  officers 
could  not  discover,  reappeared  to  disseminate  their  views 
and  to  begin  again  that  religious  agitation  for  which  their 
lives  had  been  in  peril.  Those  other  men  who  had  made 
their  escape  to  the  Continent  hastily  returned  to  their  native 
land.  Some  of  these  men  had  been  professors  in  the  uni- 
versities in  the  days  of  Edward  VI,  and  bishops,  and  deans, 
and  archdeacons,  and  noted  divines,  and  knights,  and 
nobles.  Mary's  fury  drove  them  to  Switzerland  and  the 
Low  Countries  and  the  cities  on  the  Rhine.  During  their 
absence  these  men  had  become  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
reformed  views  and  spirit,  the  doctrines  and  discipline, 
advocated  by  Zwingli  and  Calvin.  They  brought  back 
with  them — eight  hundred  of  them  and  more — a  deal  of 


Divers  Forms  oj  Puritanism  289 

experience  and  learning  and  piety.  Their  eyes  had  been 
opened,  their  hearts  had  been  changed,  their  notions  of 
things  generally  had  been  completely  revolutionized.  They 
did  not  like  popery — did  not  like  any  of  the  rags  or  dregs  or 
fooleries  of  popery  at  all.  They  had  got  above  and  beyond 
all  that.  These  were  the  men  who  leavened  England  with 
Puritan  sentiment. 

DIVERS  PHASES  OF  PURITANISM 

In  course  of  time  Puritanism  took  on  diverse  and  con- 
flicting forms,  but  fundamentally  it  was  the  outgrowth  of 
the  Reformation  and  the  logical  issue  of  the  Protestant 
spirit.  Protestantism,  once  started,  must  continue  to  protest, 
one  protest  following  another  as  new  light  made  the  path 
of  duty  plain.  As  political  and  religious  truth  was  more 
clearly  apprehended,  there  were  stages  of  advance. 

In  its  first  phase,  Puritanism  was  a  protest  against 
forms  of  worship  and  religious  observances  which  the 
English  national  church  had  brought  over  from  Rome  and 
incorporated  in  its  Service-Books,  and  a  struggle  for  free- 
dom from  these  idolatrous  rites  and  ceremonies. 

In  its  second  phase,  Puritanism  went  farther  and  added 
to  its  protest  against  popish  practices  a  protest  against  the 
existing  forms  of  church  organization  and  government, 
created  and  imposed  by  act  of  Parliament.  It  sought  free- 
dom from  Episcopal  dominance  and  a  remodeling  of  the 
church  on  the  pattern  furnished  by  Geneva.  To  destroy 
Episcopacy  and  to  Presbyterianize  the  national  establish- 
ment was  the  ideal  of  this  class  of  Puritans. 

In  its  third  phase,  Puritanism  was  a  protest  against  a 
national  church  of  whatever  sort,  whether  Episcopal  or 
Presbyterian,  and  a  struggle  for  the  freedom  of  separation 


290  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

and  the  right  to  organize  churches  independent  of  Parlia- 
ment, self-created,  self-governing,  and  free. 

In  its  fourth  phase,  Puritanism  became  more  radical 
still.  Having  protested  itself  out  of  popery,  Episcopacy, 
and  Presbytery  into  open  and  avowed  Separation,  it  went 
one  step  farther  than  Separatists  or  Independents  were  pre- 
pared to  go,  and  insisted  that  a  living,  personal,  and  con- 
scious relation  to  Christ  was  the  fundamental  condition  of 
fellowship  in  the  churches  of  which  he  was  head.  Faith 
is  a  conscious  act,  requiring  intelligence  and  involving  will; 
hence  it  is  as  inconsistent  for  separated,  independent 
churches  to  admit  into  membership  unthinking  babes  be- 
cause they  are  born  in  a  Christian  family  as  it  is  for  the 
national  church  to  admit  Englishmen  to  membership 
because  they  are  born  in  an  English  parish.  Neither  class 
belongs  to  the  Christian  church,  because  membership 
therein  is  not  dependent  on  merely  "external  conditions 
and  accidental  circumstances,  but  on  a  living,  sincere,  and 
real  faith  in  Christ,  and  a  hearty,  personal  subjection  to  his 
authority." 

The  whole  vast  movement,  of  which  these  were  the 
successive  phases,  had  its  inception  in  the  great  Protestant 
Reformation,  and  was  its  vital  and  enduring,  as  well  as  its 
logical  and  necessary,  outcome.  Protestantism  protested 
itself  into  Puritanism  in  the  narrow  sense,  which  in  turn 
protested  itself  into  Separatism,  which  again  in  turn 
protested  itself  first  into  the  less  extreme  and  then  into  the 
more  radical  forms  of  Separation. 

THE   FIRST    FORM    OF   PURITANISM 

"The  first  public  manifestation  of  Puritanism  as  an  ele- 
ment in  church  politics"  occurred  in  the  reign  of  Edward, 
when    Hooper,    elected   to    the    bishopric    of    Gloucester, 


The  First  Form  of  Puritanism  291 

objected  to  wearing  the  bishop's  scarlet  robe,  which  to  his 
mind  was  a  symbol  of  Rome's  corruptions  and  cruelties. 
He  argued  that  the  clerical  vestments  were  of  human 
origin,  had  no  warrant  in  Scripture,  were  not  suited  to 
gospel  simplicity,  and  tended  to  gender  superstition,  since 
in  the  minds  of  the  ignorant  they  were  supposed  to  possess 
a  mysterious  virtue  which  imparted  a  sacredness  and 
validity  to  the  acts  of  the  priest  who  wore  them.  Hooper's 
scruples  were  partly  overborne,  but  in  the  later  history  the 
Puritan  conscience  stiffened,  and  protested  vehemently 
against  the  "defiled  robes  of  anti-Christ,"  "the  conjuring 
garments  of  popery,"  "the  decking  of  the  spouse  of  Christ 
with  the  ornaments  of  the  Babylonish  strumpet,"  "the  for- 
cing of  true  preachers  to  be  like  in  outward  show  to  Christ's 
enemies." 

If  surplice,  corner-cap,  and  tippet  have  been  badges  of  idolaters 
in  the  very  act  of  their  idolatry,  what  hath  the  preacher  of  Christian 
liberty,  and  the  open  rebuker  of  all  superstitions  to  do  with  the 
dregs  of  the  Romish  Beast? 

But  vestments  were  a  small  matter  compared  with 
graver  errors  and  abuses,  against  which  Puritans,  in  Eliza- 
beth's reign,  raised  an  outcry,  and  from  which  they 
struggled  to  be  free.  To  their  minds  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  was  loaded  with  papistical  and  anti-Christian 
teachings.  Being  Protestants,  they  protested,  therefore, 
against  everything  that  savored  of  Rome :  against  the  sign 
of  the  cross  in  baptism,  for  it  has  no  Bible  warrant  and  the 
ignorant  and  superstitious  give  it  a  mystical  virtue;  against 
godfathers  and  godmothers,  for  parents  and  not  strangers 
ought  to  be  pledged  to  the  religious  nurture  of  children; 
against  confirmation,  for  it  is  not  scriptural.  The  mere 
ability  to  say  the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Catechism  is  not 
an  adequate  qualification.     The  laying-on  of  the  bishop's 


292  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

hands  is  a  pretended  giving  of  grace.  The  boy  may  in 
reaHty  be  the  worst  scapegrace  in  the  neighborhood.  They 
protested  against  kneehng  at  the  Lord's  Supper.  Christ 
and  his  apostles  recHned.  They  were  feasting  and  not 
adoring.  In  the  early  church  no  such  custom  prevailed.  It 
came  in  with  transubstantiation  and  lost  its  meaning  when 
that  heresy  was  discarded.  They  protested  against  bowing 
when  the  name  of  Jesus  was  pronounced.  It  was  a  childish 
superstition,  and  was  no  more  demanded  than  bowing  at 
any  other  name  of  deity.  They  protested  against  the  en- 
forced observance  of  saints'  days,  as  holy  days,  while  the 
Lord's  one  holy  day  was  given  up  to  buying  and  selling, 
sports  and  frivolity.  They  protested  against  the  use  of  the 
ring  in  marriage.  The  Papists  make  marriage  a  sacrament, 
and  bless  and  consecrate  the  ring,  and  sprinkle  it  with  holy 
water.  Churches  which  have  abandoned  Romanism  ought 
to  abandon  this  charmed  symbol  with  all  the  rest.  They 
protested  against  the  absolution  of  the  sick.  The  priest 
had  no  such  absolving  ability.  He  practiced  a  cruel  decep- 
tion on  the  patient,  and  he  was  guilty  of  a  blasphemous 
assumption  of  divine  power.  They  protested  against  the 
form  of  the  baptismal  service.  The  priest  has  no  warrant 
for  praying  "we  give  thee  thanks  that  it  hath  pleased  thee 
to  regenerate  this  infant  with  thy  Spirit."  They  protested 
against  the  form  of  the  burial  service.  The  church  has 
no  right  to  lower  the  body  of  a  notoriously  wicked  man 
into  the  grave  with  the  words:  "It  hath  pleased  almighty 
God  to  take  unto  himself  the  soul  of  this  man;  we  there- 
fore commit  his  body  to  the  ground  in  the  sure  hope  of  the 
resurrection  to  eternal  life." 

And  so,  when  they  once  got  into  the  way  of  objecting, 
they  found  at  last  that  there  was  scarcely  any  feature  of 
the  established  religion  against  which  some  complaint  could 


The  Second  Form  of  Puritanism  293 

not  be  lodged.  They  objected  to  the  coming  of  everybody 
to  the  communion  table;  to  the  reading  of  the  apocryphal 
books  in  the  public  worship;  to  the  ordaining  of  ministers 
too  ignorant  to  preach;  to  having  one  minister  in  the  pos- 
session of  half  a  dozen  benefices;  to  the  non-residence  of 
the  holders  of  church  livings;  to  the  singing  of  prayers  and 
antiphonal  chanting,  etc. 

These  men  were  engaged  in  a  desperate  struggle  to  be 
free  from  the  bondage  of  a  half-reformed  religion  which 
an  English  sovereign  and  an  English  parliament  had 
imposed  upon  them.  They  would  not  yield  their  consciences 
to  the  idolatrous  gear  and  popish  ceremonials  of  the  Book 
of  Cojumon  Prayer  and  Adniiiiistration  of  the  Sacraments 
of  the  Church  of  England.  And  so,  refusing  to  yield,  they 
were  deprived  and  deposed  and  silenced  and  impoverished 
and  disgraced  and  branded  and  slit  in  the  nostrils  and 
robbed  of  their  ears  and  pilloried  and  imprisoned  and  left 
to  die  in  cold,  damp  dungeons — the  victims  of  ecclesiastical 
oppression  and  tyranny. 

THE  SECOND  FORM  OF  PURITANISM 

Elizabeth  and  her  bishops  pushed  conformity  with  such 
rigor  and  cruelty  that  after  a  time  men  began  to  inquire 
whether  the  whole  structure  of  the  church,  as  then  organ- 
ized, was  not  unscriptural ;  whether  episcopacy  had  any 
warrant  whatever  in  the  sacred  writings;  and  whether  the 
biblical  idea  of  the  church  ought  not  to  supplant  the 
Elizabethan. 

In  passing  from  a  protest  against  forms  of  worship  and 
religious  observances  to  a  protest  against  the  very  organi- 
zation and  government  of  the  existing  church,  Puritanism 
entered  the  second  stage  of  its  development.  Into  this 
second  stage  it  carried  all  it  had  fought  for  in  its  earlier 


294  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

struggle,  and  then  pushed  into  an  entirely  new  field,  in 
demanding  not  only  that  a  papistical  ritual  should  be  dis- 
carded, but  that  episcopacy  itself  should  be  overthrown,  and 
that  a  Presbyterian  national  establishment  should  be  sub- 
stituted in  its  place.  The  national  church — the  Church  of 
England — including  all  English  subjects,  was  still  to 
remain,  only  it  was  to  be  Presbyterian  and  not  Episcopalian. 
This  change  was  to  be  brought  about  by  reforming  the 
church  from  within,  by  educating  the  public  mind,  and  by 
persuading  Parliament  to  pass  the  necessary  laws. 

We  have  now  two  classes  of  Puritans :  Puritans  who 
wished  to  see  the  church  remain  as  it  was,  ruled  by  bishops, 
and  Puritans  who  believed  that  episcopal  rule  was  unscrip- 
tural,  and  hence  unlawful,  and  who  wished  to  see  the 
church  ruled  by  presbyters.  Both  parties  wished  to  see 
the  church  purged  of  popish  practices  and  errors,  and  both 
wished  the  church  to  be  of  a  national  character — all  English- 
men embraced  in  its  communion,  and  all  forced  to  yield 
submission  to  its  discipline.  Specifically,  it  was  a  struggle 
against  prelacy. 

These  Puritans  of  the  Presbyterian  type  wanted  two 
things :  They  wanted  laws  passed  which  would  remove  the 
hand  of  the  queen  and  of  her  Court  of  High  Commission, 
under  which  they  were  being  crushed ;  and  they  wanted  laws 
passed  which  would  completely  upset  the  existing  establish- 
ment. They  had  a  boundless  abhorrence  of  popery  and  an 
equally  boundless  abhorrence  of  the  national  hierarchy. 
They  had  been  studying  their  Bibles,  studying  them  in  the 
light  of  the  teachings  of  John  Calvin  and  the  reformed 
divines  on  the  Continent ;  and  they  believed  that  the  church 
of  the  Bible  was  the  Presbyterian  church — such  as  Calvin 
had  set  up  in  Geneva,  and  Knox  in  Scotland,  and  the 
Huguenots  in  France.     They  called  upon  Parliament  to 


Presbyterians  Plan  to  Triumph  295 

demolish  the  Church  of  England,  EpiscopaHan  in  form,  and 
to  erect  in  its  place  the  Church  of  England,  Presbyterian  in 
form.  Their  scheme  worked  admirably.  Intelligent  and 
determined  men  had  it  in  hand,  and  they  honeycombed  the 
Episcopal  church  through  and  through.  Their  idea  was  to 
form  an  iniperium  in  imperio,  with  the  hope  that  the  inside 
church  would  grow  strong  enough  some  time  to  destroy 
the  outside  one.  Arrayed  on  their  side  were  many  of  the 
best  and  strongest  men  in  England — bishops  and  professors, 
mayors  and  aldermen,  the  highest  officials  in  church  and 
state,  the  chief  and  nearest  counselors  of  Elizabeth  herself 
— but  their  strength  was  not  quite  great  enough  to  push 
their  measures  to  a  successful  issue.  Slightly  outvoted  in 
Parliament,  they  fell  a  prey  to  the  queen  and  her  inquisitors. 
Against  them  canons,  injunctions,  and  penal  laws  were 
rigidly  enforced.  Elizabeth  and  her  archbishops  pursued 
them  with  relentless  fury;  and  the  whole  ecclesiastical 
machinery  was  set  in  motion  to  crush  them  out  of  exist- 
ence. But  God  had  some  better  thing  in  store  for  England, 
and  so  Puritanism  could  not  die. 

Two  things  ought  to  be  said  concerning  these  outlawed 
Puritans.  First,  they  were  fighting  a  tremendous  battle  for 
liberty  of  conscience,  but,  sharing  the  spirit  of  their  age, 
they  had  only  half  learned  the  meaning  of  liberty.  They 
fought  for  liberty  for  themselves,  but  they  had  no  thought 
of  according  liberty  to  others.  Could  they  have  triumphed, 
the  Presbyterians  would  have  whipped  every  Episcopalian 
into  line  with  the  same  severity  that  was  now  being  exer- 
cised toward  themselves. 

The  second  thing  to  say  is  that,  nevertheless,  these  half- 
illumined  Puritans  were  the  sole  bulwarks  of  English 
liberty,  both  civil  and  religious.  It  was  the  very  time  of  the 
horrible  Catholic  butcheries  in  France,  and  the  triumphant 


296  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

crushing  progress  of  the  papal  power.  The  forces  of  evil 
were  gathering  to  destroy  the  English  church  and  throne, 
and,  as  Froude  says, 

It  would  have  fared  ill  with  England  had  there  been  no  hotter 
blood  than  filtered  in  the  sluggish  veins  of  the  officials  of  the  establish- 
ment. There  needed  an  enthusiasm  fiercer  far  to  encounter  the 
revival  of  Catholic  fanaticism.  It  was  the  Puritans  who,  after  all, 
saved  the  very  church  which  attempted  to  disown  them.  But  for 
them,  whom  the  establishment  endeavored  to  destroy,  the  old  religion 
would  have  come  back  on  the  country  like  a  returning  tide. 

It  was  not  Elizabeth  who  saved  herself  and  who  saved 
England.  She  enjoyed  a  victorious  reign  and  died  a  natural 
death  in  spite  of  herself.  To  the  Puritans,  whom  she  hated, 
she  owed  her  personal  safety  and  her  vast  accomplish- 
ments. It  was  not  by  Elizabeth  nor  by  her  High  Com- 
mission, but  by  Puritan  statesmen  and  Puritan  patriots  that 
English  liberty  was  preserved.  It  was  not  by  the  High- 
Church  clergy  that  the  ecclesiastical  establishment  main- 
tained its  existence,  but  by  those  very  Calvinistic  sectaries 
whom  they  silenced  and  imprisoned.  There  is,  today,  a 
Protestant  English  throne  and  a  Protestant  Church  of 
England  because  of  what  Puritanism  was  and  of  what 
Puritanism  did.  The  English  church  owes  its  very  life  at 
this  hour  to  the  men  whom  it  detested  and  sought  to  destroy. 

THE  THIRD  FORM  OF  PURITANISM 

Of  Presbyterian  Puritanism  Thomas  Cartwright  was 
the  representative  exponent ;  but  the  Puritan  idea  could  not 
stop  at  the  stage  to  which  he  had  brought  it.  Earnest  and 
thoughtful  minds  carried  it  to  a  stage  beyond.  About  a 
decade  after  he  began  to  make  trouble  and  to  get  himself 
into  trouble,  still  another  ecclesiastical  idea  was  broached, 
which  gave  rise  to  still  another  Puritan  party.  Robert 
Browne  conceived  the  idea  that  Episcopalians  and  Presby- 


The  Third  Form  0}  Puritanism  297 

terians  were  both  wrong ;  that  the  Scriptures  warranted  the 
theories  of  neither  faction;  that,  according  to  the  Bible, 
the  government  of  the  church  is  neither  episcopal  nor  pres- 
byterial,  but  congregational;  that  a  national  church,  of 
whatever  sort,  was  not  countenanced  in  the  Word  of  God; 
that  the  New  Testament  knew  only  independent,  local 
churches,  subject  only  to  Christ  the  head;  that  Christians 
who  really  wished  a  genuine  reform  must  break  connection 
altogether  with  the  established  religion,  and  band  together 
in  local  societies,  modeled  after  the  Bible  pattern. 

This  congregational  idea  carried  in  it  radical  and  poten- 
tial elements  of  the  most  far-reaching  consequence.  For 
one  thing,  it  recognized  the  principle  of  church  inde- 
pendency. Each  church  has  supreme  authority  in  itself 
under  Christ,  and  its  officers  derive  their  power  from  the 
entire  membership.  Involved  in  this  principle,  for  another 
thing,  was  the  inevitable  implication,  seen  dimly  at  first 
by  a  few,  of  the  separation  of  church  and  state. 

If  the  church  is  a  free  and  independent  religious  community,  then 
it  must  stand  apart  from  the  state,  and  if  the  interests  of  religion 
are  committed  solely  to  such  communities,  then  the  state  must  cease 
to  exercise  religious  functions.  This  was  the  necessary  inference; 
and  this  result  came  from  the  irresistible  logic  of  the  situation. 

Bound  up  with  church  independency  and  the  separation 
of  church  and  state,  came,  in  the  third  place,  the  principle 
of  religious  liberty. 

If  each  church  is  a  religious  democracy  by  itself,  then  one  church 
or  group  of  churches  cannot  coerce  another  church  or  group  of 
churches  in  matters  pertaining  to  religion.  If  church  and  state  are 
separated  and  the  state  stripped  of  religious  functions,  then  the  state 
may  not  take  any  account  of  religious  opinions  as  such,  and  may  not 
use  force  to  compel  religious  belief.  As  neither  church  nor  state  has 
thus  any  arm  of   rightful  authority  by  which  to  enforce  uniformity 


298  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

of  belief,  the  necessary  result  must  be  not  only  religious  toleration, 
but  absolute  liberty  of  conscience. 

These  principles  are  commonplaces  now,  but  in  that  day 
they  were  both  new  and  detestable,  and  even  their  advocates 
did  not  clearly  perceive  their  import,  nor  work  them  out  to 
their  logical  conclusions. 

Queen  Elizabeth  hastened  to  do  her  utmost  to  stamp 
such  religious  sentiments  out  of  existence.  The  leaders 
were  gibbeted  and  their  followers  jailed.  Copping,  and 
Thacker,  and  Penry,  and  Greenwood,  and  Barrowe  were 
among  the  illustrious  martyrs  of  Congregationalism — as 
worthy  men  as  ever  graced  the  annals  of  the  Christian 
church — done  to  death  by  the  halter  because  they  held 
the  dangerous  and  detested  doctrine  of  church  independ- 
ency. And,  early  in  the  next  reign,  men  of  this  mind, 
holding  these  views,  harassed  and  hounded  by  the  minions 
of  James,  sought  a  liberty  in  Holland  which  England 
denied  them.  Our  Pilgrim  fathers  crossed  the  unknown 
seas  and  made  a  home  in  the  new  wilderness  world,  because 
freedom  to  worship  God  was  a  boon  refused  them  in  their 
native  land. 

THE   FOURTH    FORM    OF    PURITANISM 

There  was  still  a  fourth  class  of  Puritans,  more 
advanced  and  radical  than  all  who  had  gone  before.  They 
carried  Puritanism  to  its  ultimate,  logical  issue.  In  their 
spoken  thought  and  written  creed  there  was  no  wavering 
note  of  uncertainty  about  the  complete  and  absolute  sepa- 
ration of  church  and  state,  nor  about  full  and  unequivocal 
soul-liberty  for  all  human  beings.  In  both  respects,  the 
Anabaptists  were  in  advance  of  the  Independents;  as  they 
were,  likewise,  in  their  doctrine  that  membership  in  the 
churches  should  be  conditioned,  not  upon  residence  or  birth, 


The  Fourth  Form  of  Puritanism  299 

but  upon  the  work  of  grace  in  the  heart.  To  the  Inde- 
pendents the  logical  implications  of  their  doctrines  were 
too  great  for  the  first  proclaimers,  but  to  the  Baptists 
there  were  no  implications  that  they  were  not  ready  to 
proclaim  from  the  very  start.  They  were  the  only  people 
in  the  world  who  discerned  the  abstract  principle  of 
true  religious  liberty,  putting  it  at  once  into  practical,  con- 
crete application.  "It  came  to  speech  with  a  clearness  and 
fulness  which  suggests  a  revelation." 

Being  the  most  thoroughgoing  of  Puritans,  the  Baptists 
were  dreaded  and  hated  above  all  others.  The  "royal  Tudor 
lioness"  put  Council  and  High  Commission  and  all  the 
machinery  of  church  and  state  into  operation  to  extermi- 
nate these  pests  of  society.  Fines,  confiscations,  imprison- 
ments, burnings,  were  the  price  they  paid  for  loyalty  to 
truth. 

Elizabeth's  failure  to  crush  dissent 

As  we  reach  the  end  of  the  long  reign  of  Elizabeth,  we 
perceive  that  her  struggle  to  force  her  subjects  into  conform- 
ity with  her  own  ecclesiastical  establishment  had  utterly 
failed.  Queen  and  magistrate.  Parliament  and  Council, 
bishop  and  clergy,  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission, 
were  powerless  to  coerce  and  subdue  the  consciences  of  a 
loyal,  but  protesting  and  resisting,  people.  On  the  day  of  her 
death,  church  parties  were  still  as  fixed  and  unyielding  as 
ever.  There  were  the  Anglicans  who  espoused  her  cause; 
the  Romanists  who  still  clung  to  the  Pope ;  and  the  Puritans 
who  repudiated  both.  There  were  Puritans  of  the  moder- 
ate, Low-Church,  anti-papal.  Episcopal  type ;  of  the  Presby- 
terian type;  of  the  Independent  or  Congregational  type; 
and  of  the  radical  Baptist  type.  After  all  her  frantic 
attempts  to  enforce  conformity  and  to  crush  dissent,  the 


300  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

party  lines  remained  firmly  drawn  and  the  factional  spirit 
remained  hotly  rampant.  This  was  the  Tudor  bequest  to 
the  Stuart  kings.  At  the  close  of  her  reign,  all  the  forces 
were  in  the  field  which  were  to  wage,  through  the  Stuart 
period,  so  terrific  a  conflict  in  the  cause  of  civil  and 
religious  liberty.  In  this  struggle  for  freedom,  to  her 
everlasting  disgrace,  the  Anglican  church  sided  with  the 
house  of  Stuart. 

JAMES   I  AND   CHARLES  I 

Into  the  preposterous  and  diabolical  pretensions  and 
tyrannies  of  the  first  James  and  the  first  Charles  it  is  not 
needful  to  enter. 

The  Stuart  century,  the  seventeenth,  wrapped  within  it 
the  most  varied  and  momentous  events  of  any  century  of 
which  we  have  history.  It  opened  with  the  first  James,  that 
wise  fool,  in  the  seat  of  power.  He  was  in  fact  a  driveler, 
buffoon,  coward,  and  sneak,  but  his  maxim,  "no  bishop,  no 
king,"  won  for  him  the  abject  servility  of  the  Episcopal 
leaders.  He  "was,  in  his  own  opinion,"  as  Macaulay  tells 
us,  "the  greatest  master  of  kingcraft  that  ever  lived,  but 
was,  in  truth,  one  of  those  kings  whom  God  seems  to  send 
for  the  express  purpose  of  hastening  revolutions."  Fawn- 
ing upon  this  pedantic,  garrulous,  unmitigated  tyrant  and 
fraud,  the  Anglican  bishops  declared  astonishment  at  his 
wisdom  and  sanctity,  and  affirmed  that  when  he  opened  his 
slobbering  mouth  he  spoke  by  special  assistance  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  They  described  him  as  "zealous  as  David,  learned 
as  Solomon,  religious  as  Josias,  careful  of  spreading  the 
truth  as  Constantine,  just  as  Moses,  undefiled  as  Jehosa- 
phat,  and  clement  as  Theodosius."  The  bishop  of  London, 
in  an  idiotic  outburst  of  feeling,  said  of  this  vulgar  and 
repulsive  creature,  "I  protest  my  heart  melteth  with  joy 


The  Stuart  Divine  Right  of  Kings  301 

that  almighty  God,  of  his  singular  mercy,  has  given  us  such 
a  king,  as  since  Christ's  time  the  like  hath  not  been."  It 
was  the  leaguing  of  this  bogus  kingcraft  and  this  bogus 
priestcraft,  the  satanic  alliance  of  political  and  ecclesias- 
tical despotism,  the  applauding  and  abetting  by  Anglican 
priests  of  the  preposterous  pretensions  and  diabolical 
tyrannies  of  Stuart  kings,  that  in  the  course  of  time  in- 
volved both  kingdom  and  church  in  a  common  ruin. 

THE  DIVINE   RIGHT   OF   KINGS 

An  absurd  and  inveterate  conceit  of  irresponsible  royal 
prerogative  was  the  plague  that  infected  and  destroyed  the 
house  of  Stuart.  The  divine  right  of  kings  was  the  blood- 
poison  which  coursed  through  the  veins  of  them  all — the 
poison  which,  infecting  the  body  politic  and  the  body 
ecclesiastic,  at  last  brought  death  to  both.  In  the  most 
astounding  manner  they  blurted  out  their  conceit  of  un- 
limited power,  and  the  duty  of  absolute  submission.  James 
spoke  his  own  mind  and  the  mind  of  his  successors  when 
he  said : 

As  for  the  absolute  prerogative  of  the  crown,  that  is  no  subject 
for  the  tongue  of  a  lawyer,  nor  is  it  lawful  to  be  disputed.  It  is 
atheism  and  blasphemy  to  dispute  what  God  can  do;  good  Christians 
content  themselves  with  his  will  revealed  in  his  Word ;  so  it  is  pre- 
sumption and  high  contempt  in  a  subject  to  dispute  what  a  king  can 
do;  or  to  say  that  a  king  cannot  do  this  or  that;  but  rest  in  that 
which  is  the  king's  will  revealed  in  his  law. 

To  Parliament  he  said : 

The  state  of  monarchy  is  the  supremest  thing  on  earth;  for  kings 
are  not  only  God's  lieutenants  on  earth  and  sit  upon  God's  throne,  but 
even  by  God  himself  they  are  called  gods.  As  to  dispute  what  God 
may  do  is  blasphemy,  so  it  is  seditious  in  subjects  to  dispute  what  a 
king  may  do  in  the  height  of  his  power. 

To  this  doctrine  the  Anglican  church  gave  its  approv- 


302  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

ing  and  emphatic  assent,  curtailing  it  by  neither  proviso 
nor  hmit.     Convocation  voted : 

That  the  most  high  and  sacred  order  of  kings  is  of  divine  right, 
being  the  ordinance  of  God  himself;  that  for  subjects  to  bear  arms 
against  their  king,  either  offensive  or  defensive,  upon  any  pretense 
whatsoever,  is  worthy  of  damnation. 

In  maintaining  this  dogma  the  high  Anglicans  well-nigh 
outstripped  the  Stuarts  themselves  in  the  extravagance  and 
fury  with  which  they  upheld  and  enforced  it.  Under  no 
conceivable  circumstances,  in  no  imaginable  extremity, 
would  it  be  permissible  to  resist  the  royal  authority.  Sup- 
pose the  king  should  become  a  horrible  despot,  should 
trample  every  English  law  in  the  dust,  should  outrage  the 
simplest  and  holiest  principles  of  justice,  should  commit 
innocent  victims  to  dungeons,  to  tortures,  to  slaughter, 
should  do  this  daily,  should  do  it  to  hundreds  or  even  thou- 
sands, would  it  not  be  right  to  force  him  to  stop?  The 
Church  of  England  answered.  No;  the  bishops  said  that  a 
forcible  interference  would  be  damnable. 

THE  DIVINE  RIGHT   OF  KINGS  LEADS  TO  DESPOTISM 

Of  course  on  the  heels  of  an  absolutism  of  this  sort 
despotism  and  oppression  must  quickly  follow.  Unlimited 
monarchy  means  in  due  course  unlimited  tyranny.  A  king, 
who  is  God's  lieutenant  and  divinely  invested  with  abso- 
lute power,  is  in  no  wise  amenable  to  human  restraints.  He 
can  do  as  he  likes  with  men's  persons  and  property.  Par- 
liament, the  courts,  the  laws  of  the  land,  the  liberties  and 
belongings  of  the  people  are  all  subject  to  the  irresponsible 
will  of  the  sovereign.  And  exactly  this  was  the  actual 
outworking  of  the  divine-right  doctrine.  James  and 
Charles  proceeded  to  demonstrate  in  fact  that  their  theory 
was  valid  and  workable.     If  parliaments  could  serve  their 


Divine  Right  and  Despotism  303 

ends  they  convened  them;  if  they  thwarted  their  will  they 
dissolved  them,  and  for  eleven  years  Charles  ruled  with- 
out a  parliament.  And  so  were  enacted  those  frightfully 
despotic  and  oppressive  measures  which  blackened  the 
annals  of  English  history — unswerving  assertions  of  irre- 
sponsible authority;  persistent  usurpations  of  unauthorized 
power;  arbitrary  stretches  of  royal  prerogative;  violations 
of  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  land ;  infringements  on  the 
constitutional  rights  of  the  people;  oppressions  of  subjects 
in  their  liberties  and  properties;  finings  and  imprisonments 
without  legal  process ;  ruthless  invasions  of  the  precincts  of 
Parliament;  shameless  sales  of  offices  and  monopolies; 
coercions  of  magistrates  and  judges;  billeting  of  soldiers  on 
private  citizens ;  arbitrary  taxations ;  Star  Chamber  convic- 
tions; ship-money  levies;  illegal  conscriptions;  forced  loans 
and  benevolences;  and  every  manner  of  high-handed  mis- 
rule in  every  department  of  government. 

THE  DIVINE  RIGHT  OF  BISHOPS  AND  ECCLESIASTICAL 
DESPOTISM 

In  all  this  James  and  Charles  were  upheld  by  the  High- 
Church  party.  This  was  the  state  side  of  absolutism.  It 
had  its  counterpart  in  the  absolutism  of  the  church.  The 
two  were  halves  of  one  whole.  Over  against  the  divine 
right  of  kings  stood  the  divine  right  of  bishops.  As  the 
bishops  were  the  abettors  of  the  Stuarts  in  carrying  political 
despotism  to  its  utmost  limits,  so  in  turn  the  Stuarts  abetted 
the  bishops  in  carrying  ecclesiastical  tyranny  to  its  farthest 
bounds.  In  matters  civil  Strafford  was  the  evil  genius 
through  whom  King  Charles  robbed  the  people  of  their 
liberties,  and  in  matters  ecclesiastical  x\rchbishop  Laud  was 
the  fiend  incarnate  whom  the  king  employed  for  the  self- 
same purpose,  the  monster  whose  "memory  is  still  loathed," 


304  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

as  Buckle  tells  us,  "as  the  meanest,  most  cruel,  and  the  most 
narrow-minded  man  who  ever  sat  on  the  Episcopal  bench," 
and  whom  Macaulay  describes  as 

by  nature  rash,  irritable,  quick  to  feel  his  own  dignity,  slow  to  sym- 
pathize with  the  sufferings  of  others,  and  prone  to  the  error,  com- 
mon to  superstitious  men,  of  mistaking  his  own  peevish  and  malignant 
moods  for  emotions  of  pious  zeal. 

This  was  the  triumvirate  who  took  infinite  delight  in  the 
outrages  and  cruelties  of  unbridled  despotism,  all  three 
completely  dominated  by  the  idea  of  the  divine  right  of 
kings  and  the  divine  right  of  bishops. 

ARCHBISHOP  LAUD 

The  power  behind  the  throne,  far  beyond  Strafford,  was 
Archbishop  Laud.  The  national  church  was  under  the  con- 
trol of  a  man  who  came  perilously  near  being  a  Roman 
Catholic.  Twice  the  Pope  offered  him  a  cardinal's  hat, 
which  he  only  faintly  refused.  The  daughter  of  the  Duke 
of  Devonshire  explained  to  him  why  she  embraced  Roman- 
ism, "  'Tis  chiefly  because  I  hate  to  travel  in  a  crowd ;  and 
as  I  perceive  your  grace  and  many  others  are  making  haste 
to  Rome,  I  wished  to  get  there  first,  to  escape  being 
jostled." 

Back  in  the  days  of  Elizabeth  there  was  a  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer  enforced  by  an  Act  of  Uniformity,  but  Laud 
was  not  content  to  require  the  ritual  and  teaching  of  Eliza- 
beth's day;  he  must  needs  push  the  Church  of  England 
through  a  change,  almost  equivalent  to  a  revolution,  in  its 
doctrine,  discipline,  and  worship;  he  must  needs  introduce 
innovations,  giving  everything  a  Romish  trend  and  import ; 
and  he  must  needs  drive  his  uniformity  in  a  manner  odi- 
ously disdainful  and  haughty  and  with  a  temper  offensively 
irrascible  and  hot.    A  mediaevalist  was  seeking  to  swing  the 


Archbishop  Laud's  Retrograde  Policy  305 

church  into  a  retrograde  movement,  and  to  fasten  a  dis- 
guised Romanism  on  the  Enghsh  nation — the  communion 
table  transformed  into  an  altar,  to  stand  altarwise  against 
the  east  wall,  costly  altar-plate  and  Catholic  fixtures  and 
an  altar  service  with  adorations  and  bowings — all  suggest- 
ive of  transubstantiation ;  a  retinue  of  priests  in  rich  copes 
and  other  accessories  serving  the  altar  with  vestments, 
genuflections,  and  postures  all  modeled  on  Roman  concep- 
tions ;  into  the  Elizabethan  idea  and  use  of  the  Prayer-Book 
was  injected  the  Laudian  notion  of  apostolic  succession, 
clerical  celibacy,  auricular  confession,  prayers  for  the  dead, 
purgatory,  and  the  ritualistic  usages  and  sacramental  and 
sacerdotal  theories  of  the  papal  church. 

To  sober  men  all  this  seemed  a  project  and  plot  to  ruin 
the  gospel,  and  they  abhorred  it  as  the  height  of  wicked- 
ness against  God  and  his  honor.  But  all  the  terrific 
machinery  of  state  and  church  were  at  Laud's  command, 
and  conformity  he  would  have  to  the  last  and  least  point 
of  doctrine  and  ceremony.  To  this  end  he  turned  the 
courts  of  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission  into  Protes- 
tant inquisitions  and  ferreted  out  and  punished  with 
exquisite  torments  those  who  opposed  him.  Fleeing  before 
the  fury  of  his  rage  and  to  escape  his  vengeance,  more  than 
twenty  thousand  British  subjects  quitted  their  native  land 
to  find  a  home  in  a  new  world  beyond  the  seas;  and  it  is 
soberly  estimated  that  had  he  reigned  twenty-four  years 
instead  of  twelve  one-fourth  the  population  of  England 
and  one-third  its  wealth  would  have  gone.  But,  at  what- 
ever cost,  conformity  he  would  have,  and  at  whatever  price 
of  cruelty  and  suffering.  What  a  chapter  did  Laud  read 
into  English  history  by  his  treatment  of  the  friends  of 
truth  and  foes  of  Rome — deprivations,  confiscations,  seques- 
trations,    mutilations,     fines,     imprisonments,     maimings, 


3o6  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

stocks,  and  dungeons — everything  that  diabolical  ingenuity 
could  invent  to  compel  the  worthiest  Christians  England 
then  had  to  act  a  lie,  to  violate  conscience,  to  dishonor 
God.  On  the  pages  of  that  history  are  recorded  the  shock- 
ing cruelties  of  this  merciless  inquisitor,  any  single  para- 
graph from  which  is  quite  sufficient  to  disclose  the  infamy 
of  his  character  and  deeds.  Concrete  examples  will  best 
serve  our  purpose.  Bastwick  was  a  physician  who  wrote  a 
book  in  which  he  charged  the  prelates  with  despising  the 
Scriptures  and  advancing  popery,  superstition,  and  idolatry. 
Pryn  was  a  lawyer  who  wrote  a  book  in  which  he  inveighed 
against  plays,  monks,  dancing,  and  Maypoles.  Burton  was 
a  clergyman  who  published  two  sermons  "For  God  and  the 
King,"  in  which  he  criticized  the  late  innovations  in  religion 
and  worship.  These  men  were  degraded  from  their  pro- 
fessions, set  in  the  pillory,  branded  in  the  cheeks,  deprived 
of  their  ears,  fined  £5,000  each,  and  sentenced  to  perpetual 
imprisonment  in  the  remotest  prisons  of  the  kingdom.  Or 
take  another  case,  and  note  its  specific  details.  Doctor 
Alexander  Leighton  was  a  Scotch  divine,  the  father  of  the 
celebrated  Doctor  Leighton.  He  wrote  a  book  against  the 
Episcopal  hierarchy  entitled  Zion's  Plea  against  Prelacy. 
This  was  the  Star  Chamber  verdict  against  him : 

The  Doctor  should  he  committed  to  the  prison  of  the  Fleet  for  life 
and  pay  a  fine  of  iio,ooo;  that  the  Court  of  High  Commission  should 
degrade  him  from  the  ministry;  and  that  then  he  should  be  brought 
to  the  pillory  at  Westminster  and  whipped;  after  whipping,  be  set 
upon  the  pillory  a  convenient  time  and  have  one  of  his  ears  cut  off, 
one  side  of  his  nose  slit  and  be  branded  in  the  face  with  a  double 
S.  for  a  Sower  of  Sedition;  that  then  he  should  be  carried  back  to 
prison,  and  after  a  few  days  be  pilloried  a  second  time  in  Cheapside, 
and  be  there  likewise  whipped,  and  have  the  other  side  of  his  nose 
slit,  and  his  other  ear  cut  off,  and  then  be  shut  up  in  close  prison  for 
the  remainder  of  his  life. 


Puritan  Progress  Notwithstanding  Persecution        307 

Bishop  Laud  pulled  off  his  cap  while  this  merciless  sen- 
tence was  pronouncing,  and  shouted  thanks  to  God  for  it ! 

THE  PURITAN  SIDE  OF  IT 

While  Charles  and  Strafford  and  Laud  were  thus  work- 
ing their  theories  of  kingcraft  and  priestcraft,  crushing 
the  English  people  under  an  ecclesiastical  and  civil  tyranny 
the  extent  and  enormity  of  which  no  human  speech  is  ade- 
quate to  tell,  what  had  become  of  those  Puritan  parties 
which  had  their  rise  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  and  which  the 
queen  and  her  Anglican  church  were  powerless  to  destroy? 
When  the  first  of  the  Stuarts  came  to  the  throne  these 
Puritans  of  various  types — Low-Church  Episcopalian, 
Presbyterian,  Independent,  Baptist,  and  the  rest — were  all 
in  the  field,  and,  even  before  the  crowning  of  James,  were 
crying  for  redress  of  grievances.  The  struggle  in  which 
they  had  been  engaged  never  ceased.  They  brought  it  over 
from  the  Tudors  to  the  Stuarts.  They  fought  the  tyran- 
nical rule  of  Elizabeth  and  they  continued  the  fight  with 
James  and  Charles;  and  throughout  the  conflict  they 
steadily  increased  in  numbers  and  power.  The  very  means 
used  to  annihilate  them  were  overruled  to  their  progress 
and  victory.  Parliament  was  won  to  their  side  by  the 
autocratic  rule  of  the  Stuart  kings — their  high-handed 
usurpations  of  parliamentary  prerogative,  their  defiance  of 
constitutional  restrictions,  their  tyrannical  exercise  of  un- 
warranted power,  their  unbearable  assumption  of  absolute 
monarchy,  in  all  of  which  they  were  stoutly  countenanced 
and  assisted  by  the  high  Anglican  party.  The  civil  judges 
and  law  courts  were  won  to  their  side  by  the  manifest 
injustice  with  which  the  bishop's  courts  persecuted  and 
punished  offending  Puritans.  The  Court  of  Arches  and 
the  Court  of  King's  Bench  antagonized  the  spiritual  courts 


3o8  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

and  snatched  innocent  victims  from  their  vexing  and  unjust 
inflictions.  Great  numbers  of  the  EngHsh  laity  were  won 
to  their  side  by  the  very  harshness  of  the  means  that  were 
used  to  suppress  them.  The  promoters  of  the  AngHcan 
cause  were  themselves  unwittingly  its  destroyers.  Their 
spirit  was  so  uncharitable  and  their  proceedings  so  narrow 
and  unjust  that  popular  sympathy  was  driven  to  the  other 
side.  The  more  Puritan  divines  were  silenced  and  deprived, 
pilloried  and  whipped,  branded  and  imprisoned,  the  more 
these  outrages  stirred  the  popular  indignation.  The  people 
saw  the  Church  of  England  transformed  into  a  pseudo- 
Romanism;  saw  demands  for  reform  in  doctrine  and  wor- 
ship ignored  and  silenced;  saw  true  Protestants  and  earnest 
Christians  scourged  and  mutilated;  saw  their  rights,  beliefs, 
persons,  and  possessions  surrendered  to  the  irresponsible 
will  of  the  king  and  bishop,  and  seeing  all  this  they  swelled 
the  ranks  of  the  Puritan  party.  Against  kingly  and  priestly 
tyranny  the  disaffection  grew  through  the  reign  of  James 
and  greatly  increased  in  the  reign  of  Charles;  there  was 
not  a  year  in  the  reign  of  either  in  which  the  Puritan  cause 
was  not  augmenting  in  numbers  and  strength.  The  more 
the  Anglican  religion  was  made  to  do  base  service  in  prop- 
ping up  Stuart  absolutism  and  the  more  the  state  lent  itself 
to  Anglican  oppression,  the  more  hateful  became  these 
two  despotisms  in  the  eyes  of  the  people.  The  time  ap- 
proached when  in  sheer  desperation  the  victims  of  tyranny 
must  destroy  the  tyrants. 

The  excesses  of  despotism,  sacerdotalism,  ceremonialism,  intoler- 
ance and  cruelty  [as  Schaff  explains]  exhausted  the  patience  of  a 
noble  freedom-loving  people  and  kindled  the  blazing  war-torch  which 
burnt  to  the  ground  the  throne  and  the  temple. 

The  day  was  near  when  the  Puritans  could  turn  on 
their  tormentors.     It  was  ushered  in  when  Charles  and 


Scots  Rebel  Against  Laud's  Liturgy  309 

Laud  attempted  to  force  an  English  popish  ritual  on  the 
Presbyterian  church  of  Scotland.  The  nation  rebelled 
against  Laud's  liturgy.  Laud  swore  the  Scots  must 
submit.  Strafford  swore  that  these  hounds  must  be 
whipped  back  to  common-sense.  The  Scots  in  national 
covenant  banded  together  in  revolution.  Things  were  get- 
ting beyond  the  king's  control.  For  eleven  years,  without  a 
parliament,  with  a  high  hand,  he  had  misruled  the  English 
people;  but  now  his  straits  were  such  that  the  calling  of  a 
parliament  could  not  be  escaped.  This  Short  Parliament 
refused  to  grant  a  farthing  for  the  Scottish  war  until  inno- 
vations in  religion  and  intrusions  upon  liberty  had  been  con- 
sidered ;  and  so  the  king  in  anger  dissolved  the  houses.  The 
situation  of  Charles  was  becoming  desperate.  Strafford's 
policy  of  "thorough"  no  longer  availed.  Laud  had  run 
his  course.  The  Scottish  army  was  crossing  the  bor- 
ders. Discomfited  on  every  side,  his  resources  exhausted, 
his  English  subjects  hating  the  war  intensely,  venting  their 
wrath  in  riots  in  London,  in  sacking  Laud's  palace,  in  pub- 
lishing angry  pamphlets,  Charles  and  Laud  and  Strafford 
saw  that  another  parliament  must  be  summoned  or  the  king 
must  cease  to  reign.  So  convened  that  Long  Parliament, 
the  most  famous  and  the  most  powerful  England  has  ever 
known,  that  renowned  parliament  which,  as  Macaulay  says, 
"is  justly  entitled  to  the  reverence  and  gratitude  of  all  who, 
in  any  part  of  the  world,  enjoy  the  blessings  of  constitu- 
tional government." 

Into  the  details  of  the  Long  Parliament  it  is  impossible 
to  enter.  At  last  the  time  had  come  when  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people  could  voice  the  nation's  discontent  and 
redress  its  injuries.  Early  the  Parliament  provided  against 
its  own  dissolution  by  royal  caprice  or  anger.  It  quashed 
the  king's  right  to  end  its  sessions  without  its  own  consent. 


3IO  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

It  listened  to  the  petitions  that  came  pouring  in  from  the 
victims  of  intolerance.  It  set  free  those  Puritan  prison- 
ers, many  of  whom  had  been  languishing  in  loathsome  dog- 
holes  for  a  decade  or  more.  From  distant  Scilly  and 
Guernsey  and  Jersey  came  Bastwick  and  Pryn  and  Burton, 
attended  in  their  progress  Londonward  by  hosts  of  sympa- 
thizing friends,  and  from  the  Fleet  came  Dr.  Leighton. 
Their  fines  were  canceled,  and  for  their  losses  they  were 
reimbursed.  The  prisoners  freed,  their  tormentors  were 
arrested.  Strafford  and  Laud  were  seized  and  landed  in  the 
Tower.  Those  courts  of  lawlessness  and  cruelty,  through 
the  years  the  scourge  and  terror  of  English  subjects — Star 
Chamber,  High  Commission,  Council  of  York — were 
abolished.  The  King's  Council  was  dissolved,  and  its  mem- 
bers were  impeached.  Strafford  was  attainted,  and  the  day 
he  was  beheaded,  100,000  people  witnessed  the  spectacle 
and  kindled  bonfires  to  attest  their  joy.  Laud  was  left 
for  a  season  to  enjoy  prison  fare  in  the  Tower.  The 
bishops  were  expelled  from  the  House  of  Lords.  When 
the  Irish  massacre  and  rebellion  occurred.  Parliament  re- 
fused the  king's  demand  for  soldiers  and  supplies,  knowing 
that  in  duplicity  and  treachery  he  would  turn  his  army 
against  the  liberties  of  England  herself.  Instead,  he  was 
presented  with  a  Grand  Remonstrance,  in  which  were  re- 
counted, in  two  hundred  and  six  articles,  the  misdeeds  of 
which  he  had  been  guilty  since  the  day  he  became  king. 
When  in  a  moment  of  insane  folly  Charles,  at  the  head  of 
an  armed  band,  invaded  the  House  of  Commons  to  drag 
from  their  seats  Hampden,  Pym,  Hollis,  and  the  other 
Puritan  leaders,  the  outrage  so  infuriated  Parliament  and 
the  populace  that  henceforth  London  became  too  hot  a  place 
for  the  king.  At  Nottingham  he  set  up  the  royal  standard, 
and  proclaimed  war  against  Parliament.     Parliament  began 


Acts  of  the  Long  Parliament  311 

negotiations  with  Presbyterian  Scotland.  English  Presby- 
terian Puritanism  was  steadily  gaining  the  ascendency  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  Superstitious  monuments  and 
ornaments  were  removed  from  the  churches.  Provision 
was  made  for  the  better  observance  of  the  Lord's  Day. 
Clergymen  of  scandalous  lives  were  arraigned  and  silenced, 
and  more  competent  and  worthy  men  were  installed  in  their 
places.  Puritan  ministers,  whom  Laud  had  impoverished, 
were  in  a  measure  reimbursed.  The  Episcopal  church  was 
overthrown,  it  being  enacted  that  "the  prelatic  form  of 
church  government,  archbishops,  bishops,  etc.,  should  cease, 
determine,  and  become  absolutely  void."  An  assembly  of 
learned  and  godly  divines  was  convened  "to  be  consulted 
with  by  the  Parliament  for  the  settling  of  the  government 
and  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England  and  for  vindicating 
and  clearing  of  the  doctrine  of  the  said  church  from  false 
aspersions  and  interpretations."  During  all  this  time  the 
civil  war  was  in  progress  with  the  odds  in  favor  of  Charles ; 
and  the  Parliament  felt  more  strongly  than  ever  the  neces- 
sity of  an  alliance  with  Scotland.  In  due  time  this  alliance 
was  consummated  in  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  in 
which  the  two  nations  entered  into  compact  to  subjugate 
England  and  Ireland  and  to  set  up  Scotch  Presbyterianism 
in  the  three  kingdoms  as  the  established  and  exclusive 
religion.  To  this  end  the  Westminster  Assembly  framed 
its  Confession  of  Faith,  its  Catechisms,  and  its  Directory  of 
Worship.  In  the  meantime  the  royal  and  parliamentary 
armies  were  waging  their  battles  in  the  field,  and  Cromwell 
and  his  Ironsides  were  winning  Marston  Moor  and  Naseby. 
In  London,  the  House  of  Lords,  now  thoroughly  Presby- 
terianized,  was  abolishing  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
throwing  Prayer-Book  and  surplice  on  the  ash  heap;  drag- 
ging Archbishop  Laud  from  his  four  years'  imprisonment 


312  The  Anglican  Church  and  Puritanism 

to  pay  on  the  block  the  penalty  of  his  crimes;  and  deliber- 
ately planning  to  foist  Presbyterianism  on  the  nation  with 
an  enforced  conformity  as  intolerant  and  merciless  as  Laud 
ever  dreamed  of.  But  Cromwell  and  his  army  had  not  won 
freedom  from  Episcopal  tyranny  to  fall  victims  to  a 
tyranny  quite  as  bad  under  another  name.  They  would 
almost  as  soon  have  been  coerced  in  religion  by  the  king  or 
his  bishop  as  by  a  Presbyterian  synod.  They  did  not  be- 
lieve in  coercion,  and  to  it  they  would  not  submit.  So 
Parliament  and  its  own  army  were  in  open  rupture.  Charles 
had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Scots,  who  sold  him  to 
the  English  Parliament,  the  army  in  due  course  gaining 
possession  of  his  person.  The  intrigues  of  Parliament  and 
the  duplicity  and  treachery  of  the  king  at  last  exhausted 
the  patience  of  Cromwell,  and  he  resorted  to  heroic  meas- 
ures. London  was  invaded;  Parliament  was  purged  of  its 
Presbyterian  members;  the  Rump  Parliament  voted  the 
king's  impeachment;  a  popular  tribunal  was  created  which 
voted  his  execution.     The  verdict  read : 

For  all  which  treasons  and  crimes  this  Court  doth  adjudge  that 
he  the  said  Charles  Stuart,  as  a  tyrant,  traitor,  and  murderer,  and  a 
public  enemy,  shall  be  put  to  death  by  severing  his  head  from  his 
body. 

With  the  death  of  Charles  England  passed  to  the  pro- 
tectorate of  Cromwell.  Monarchy  and  episcopacy  had  been 
overthrown.  The  attempt  of  Presbyterian  Puritanism  to 
establish  a  theocracy,  equally  hostile  to  the  rights  of  con- 
science, had  been  thwarted;  and  Puritanism  of  the  Inde- 
pendent and  Baptist  types  had  gained  a  temporary  triumph. 
The  end  was  not  yet,  but  the  first  great  act  in  the  struggle 
for  civil  and  religious  liberty  had  come  to  a  close. 


XII 

THE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH  AND 
NON-CONFORMITY 


XII 

THE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH  AND  NON- 
CONFORMITY 1 

For  a  decade  after  the  beheading  of  Charles  Stuart 
(1649),  Oliver  Cromwell  tried  to  give  the  English  people 
civil  and  religious  liberty,  but  the  intolerant  spirit  of  the 
times  thwarted  his  endeavor.  In  the  main,  Independents, 
Baptists,  and  Quakers  wished  all  religion  free;  Romanists, 
Anglicans,  and  Presbyterians  wished  no  religion  free  except 
their  own.  Impatience  with  democratic  tendencies,  reli- 
gious clemency,  and  military  rule  led  to  a  desire  for  the 
restoration  of  monarchy.  The  republicans  tried  in  vain  to 
avert  this  calamity.  Milton  wrote  his  pamphlet  setting 
forth  "A  ready  and  easy  way  to  establish  a  common- 
wealth," and  implored  the  people  not  to  let  his  written 
sentences  prove  "the  last  words  of  expiring  liberty." 

CHARLES  II 

But  the  tide  set  strongly  the  other  way,  and  Charles  II 
was  called  to  the  English  throne.  From  Holland  he  had 
sent  a  Declaration  that  there  should  be  a  general  amnesty 
and  liberty  of  religious  belief,  but  perfidy  was  the  master- 
vice  of  all  the  Stuarts.  With  the  Restoration  there  followed 
twenty-five  years  under  Charles  and  three  under  his  brother 
James,  "the  darkest  and  most  disgraceful  in  English 
annals."  We  recall  that  classic  passage  in  Macaulay's  essay 
on  Milton : 

^  Delivered  before  the  Ministers'  Institute  at  the  Divinity  School,  The 
University  of  Chicago,  March   29,    1905. 


31 6  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

Then  came  those  days  never  to  be  recalled  without  a  blush,  the 
days  of  servitude  without  loyalty,  of  sensuality  without  love,  of 
dwarfish  talents  and  gigantic  vices,  the  paradise  of  cold  hearts  and 
narrow  minds,  the  golden  age  of  the  coward,  the  bigot,  and  the  slave. 
The  government  had  just  ability  enough  to  deceive,  and  just  religion 
enough  to  persecute.  The  principles  of  liberty  were  the  scoff  of  every 
grinning  courtier  and  the  anathema  maranatha  of  every  fawning  dean. 
In  every  high  place,  worship  was  paid  to  Charles  and  James,  Belial  and 
Moloch;  and  England  propitiated  those  obscene  and  cruel  idols  with 
the  blood  of  her  best  and  bravest  children.  Crime  succeeded  to  crime, 
disgrace  to  disgrace,  until  the  race,  accursed  of  God  and  man,  was  a 
second  time  driven  forth  to  wander  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  to 
be  a  by-word  and  a  shaking  of  the  head  to  the  nations. 

The  grounds  of  this  indictment  he  in  the  history  itself. 
Charles  IFs  promises  of  general  amnesty  and  liberty  in 
religion  were  kept  in  genuine  Stuart  fashion.  His  amnesty 
extended  to  the  living  and  the  dead.  The  men  who  had 
been  implicated  in  the  execution  of  the  late  king  were 
dragged  through  the  streets  of  London  with  ropes  around 
their  necks,  and  sentenced  to  life-imprisonment.  Ten 
of  the  chief  of  them  were  singled  out  for  execution. 
Out  of  the  tombs  in  Westminster  Abbey  were  ejected 
the  bodies  of  Cromwell's  mother  and  daughter  and  twenty 
others  and  buried  in  the  nearby  churchyard.  Out  of 
their  coffins  were  dragged  the  corpses  of  Cromwell  him- 
self, and  Bradshaw,  and  Ireton,  and  drawn  on  hurdles  to 
the  place  appointed,  gibbeted  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  their 
heads  set  on  poles  at  the  top  of  Westminster  Hall,  and  their 
trunks  buried  together  under  the  Tyburn  gallows. 

Liberty  in  religion  was  of  a  piece  with  political  amnesty. 
The  Congregationalists,  Baptists,  and  Quakers  went  down 
in  the  general  crash.  Romanists,  Anglicans,  and  Presby- 
terians vied  with  each  other  to  heap  upon  them  contempt 
and  ruin.    Let  them  be  so  broken  and  crushed  and  scattered 


Puritanism  Under  Charles  II  317 

as  never  to  rise  again.  It  looked  as  though  Independency 
had  seen  its  last  day.  Not  until  the  black  and  ugly  storm 
had  spent  its  fury  did  a  star  of  hope  appear.  The  Presby- 
terians indulged  the  hope  of  royal  favor,  even  the  insane 
expectation  that  Charles  would  adopt  and  enforce  their 
Confession  of  Faith  and  Directory  of  Worship;  but 
Charles  and  Parliament  failed  them  in  their  hour  of  ex- 
pected victory,  and  they  fell  almost  as  low  as  the  Independ- 
ents whom  they  despised.  Charles  himself  leaned  strongly 
toward  the  Roman  church,  being  "impatient  of  Protestant 
heresy  in  all  its  forms,  and  of  Christianity  itself  in  all  its 
precepts,"  but  that  church  being  out  of  the  question,  its 
similitude  was  the  next  thing  possible.  History  repeated 
itself.  Edward's  Prayer-Book,  revised  by  Elizabeth,  was 
again  revised,  and  this  time  again  in  the  interest  of  Rome; 
and  then  an  Act  of  Uniformity  was  passed  which  enforced 
its  strict  observance.  The  act  required  a  declaration  of 
assent  and  consent  to  all  and  everything  prescribed  and  con- 
tained in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  together  with  all  its 
rites  and  ceremonies. 

Once  more  the  Anglicans  were  having  it  all  their  own 
way,  and  speedily  it  became  their  way  with  a  vengeance. 
The  army  of  Cromwell  was  disbanded;  the  corpse  of  Crom- 
well was  hanged  and  beheaded;  the  bishops  were  restored 
to  the  House  of  Lords;  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant 
was  burned  throughout  England  by  the  common  hangman; 
the  Prayer-Book  was  made  compulsory;  Presbyterian  Scot- 
land was  forced  into  episcopacy;  the  old  doctrine  of  the 
divine  right  of  kings  was  again  proclaimed,  bishops  and 
clergy  madly  asserting  that  any  conceivable  forcible  inter- 
ference with  royalty  was  damnable.  In  the  very  next  reign 
these  men  belied  their  theories  and  stood  in  arms  against 
their  sovereign ;  but  now  it  seemed  to  them  "impossible  that 


3i8  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

a  time  would  ever  come  when  the  ties  would  be  sundered 
which  bound  them  to  the  children  of  the  martyred  Charles, 
and  when  the  loyalty  in  which  they  gloried  would  cease  to 
be  a  pleasing  and  profitable  duty." 

THE  ACT  OF  UNIFORMITY 

With  the  Anglicans  in  power,  there  was  no  room  for 
Independents,  Baptists,  and  Presbyterians.  All  clergymen 
were  ejected  who  refused  to  renounce  the  Covenant,  accept 
episcopal  ordination,  pay  canonical  obedience,  subscribe  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  use  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  Two  thousand  non-conforming  ministers  on  a 
single  day  were  expelled  from  their  parishes.  The  day 
chosen  was  singularly  appropriate.  Exactly  ninety  years 
before,  on  this  same  St.  Bartholomew's  day,  the  horrible 
Catholic  butchery  of  French  Protestants  had  taken  place. 
This  was  England's  St.  Bartholomew's  day.  On  the  Sun- 
day preceding,  vast  crowds  in  tears  attended  the  churches 
to  be  led  in  public  worship  for  the  last  time  by  their  Puritan 
pastors. 

THE  CORPORATION  ACT 

But  the  Act  of  Uniformity  was  not  the  only  act  by 
which  intolerance  sought  to  destroy  dissent  and  to  upbuild 
an  Anglican  establishment.  Working  in  league  with  this 
act  which  expelled  Non-conformist  clergymen  from  the 
parish  pulpits,  was  the  Corporation  Act,  which  excluded 
Non-conformist  laymen  from  even  the  most  petty  civil  offices 
in  the  kingdom.  It  required  every  mayor  and  magistrate, 
constable  and  alderman,  bailiff  and  town-clerk,  every  civil 
officer  of  high  or  low  degree  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance, 
to  abjure  the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,  and  to  receive 
the  Lord's  Supper  according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church 


Penalties  for  Presence  at  Conventicles  319 

of  England,  the  holy  communion  itself  being  thus  dragged 
through  the  mire  of  politics,  prostituted  to  these  ignoble 
ends,  and  made  the  necessary  prelude  to  the  holding  of  any 
civil  appointment. 

THE  CONVENTICLE  ACT 

But  these  acts  were  not  crushing  enough  to  exterminate 
non-conformity,  and  so  there  followed  the  Conventicle  Act 
which  forbade  attendance  upon  religious  meetings  in  which 
the  Anglican  ritual  was  not  in  use.  Presence  at  the  simplest 
cottage  prayer-meeting,  at  religious  conventicles  of  what- 
ever sort,  subjected  the  culprit  to  the  penalties  of  this 
barbarous  law.  To  make  the  law  effective,  penalties  were 
likewise  imposed  upon  the  man  who  permitted  the  use  of  his 
woods,  garden,  house,  or  barn  for  such  gatherings;  and 
upon  the  tithing-man  or  churchwarden  who  failed  to  report 
them;  and  upon  the  magistrate  who  was  lax  or  slack  to 
expose  and  squelch  them.  Henceforth  if  Non-conformists 
joined  in  prayer  and  praise  it  must  be  in  secret  conclaves, 
in  upper  chambers,  with  fastened  doors,  with  closed  shut- 
ters, with  extinguished  candles,  with  whispered  sermons, 
with  stationed  guards.  If  their  hiding-places  were  dis- 
covered it  meant  brutal  arrests,  ruinous  fines,  loathsome 
dungeons,  heartless  banishments.  To  accomplish  this  pur- 
ging of  holy  church,  the  best  men  in  England  were  turned 
out,  and  their  places  were  filled  with  boys,  with  informers, 
with  laymen,  with  the  illiterate  and  debauched.  In  the 
name  of  truth  and  religion,  must  be  deprived  and  degraded, 
imprisoned  and  tortured  such  saints  of  God  as  Richard 
Baxter  and  Matthew  Poole,  Theophilus  Gale  and  Edward 
Calamy,  Thomas  Manton  and  Thomas  Goodwin,  John  Ray 
and  John  Flavel,  John  Owen  and  John  Bunyan,  and  that 
long  list  of  Puritan  divines  whose  holy  lives  and  profound 


320  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

writings  will  influence  the  world  for  good  as  long  as  time 
shall  last. 

THE  FIVE-MILE  ACT 

But  even  the  Conventicle  Act  could  not  annihilate  dis- 
sent. To  accomplish  this,  some  way  must  be  devised  to 
scatter  and  starve  the  preachers.  Hence  followed  the  Five- 
Mile  Act  which  prohibited  them  from  coming  within  five 
miles  of  any  city,  town,  or  parish  in  which  they  had  ever 
conducted  religious  services ;  and  which  debarred  them  from 
teaching  school,  whether  public  or  private.  They  could 
neither  preach  nor  teach,  nor  even  show  their  presence 
within  five  miles  of  any  place  where  their  voice  had  once 
been  heard. 

THE  TEST  ACT 

Following  the  Five-Mile  Act,  aimed  to  strike  fatally  at 
dissenting  preachers,  came  the  Test  Act,  aimed  primarily 
at  Catholics,  but  bearing  hard  on  dissenting  laymen.  Public 
officers,  whether  civil,  military,  or  naval,  must  subscribe 
the  oaths  of  supremacy  and  conformity,  must  abjure  tran- 
substantiation,  and  must  receive  the  Lord's  Supper  in  the 
Church  of  England. 

To  these  several  acts  were  attached  the  heaviest  penalties 
— fines,  imprisonments,  banishments,  and,  if  the  offender  re- 
turned, death.  To  these  acts  supplements  were  added  to  the 
effect  that  informers  should  share  in  the  fines,  and  that  per- 
secutors should  go  free  who  committed  outrages  in  hunting 
down  schismatics  and  heretics.  Under  these  acts  men  like 
Baxter  and  Bunyan,  hosts  of  the  worthiest  and  holiest,  were 
crowded  into  filthy  dog-holes  in  association  with  profligate 
and  ferocious  criminals,  and  subjected  to  every  suffering 
and  indignity  which  ecclesiastical  hate  could  devise.  Bap- 
tists were  among  the  first  to   feel  these  sharp  torments; 


Non-Conformist  Sufferings  Under  Charles  321 

Congregationalists  knew  the  bitterness  of  torture  and  death ; 
Presbyterians  themselves  endured  the  persecution  they 
would  once  have  inflicted  on  others.  Fifteen  hundred 
Quakers  saw  the  inside  of  jails,  three  hundred  and  fifty  of 
whom  died  from  their  privations.  The  historians  estimate 
that  not  less  than  sixty  thousand  suffered  on  account  of 
their  religion;  and  we  have  it  from  William  Penn  that 
"more  than  five  thousand  persons  died  in  bonds  for  matter 
of  conscience."  John  Bunyan,  lying  in  Bedford  jail,  de- 
clared "he  would  remain  there  till  green  moss  grew  over  his 
eyebrows  rather  than  obey  the  oppressors,"  and  Bunyan's 
grim  determination  was  shared  by  thousands  and  thousands 
more. 

Thus  had  Non-conformists  proved  their  ability  to  suffer 
as  long  as  an  established  church  could  persecute.  Corpora- 
tion Acts,  Uniformity  Acts,  Conventicle  Acts,  Five-Mile 
Acts,  Test  Acts,  could  not  destroy  the  life  of  dissent. 
Through  all  these  fiery  trials  the  Puritan  cause  steadily 
advanced,  the  Anglican  cause  steadily  declined.  It  was  the 
strength  and  glory  of  the  downtrodden  party  that  they  had 
Charles  Stuart  for  an  enemy ;  it  was  the  weakness  and  shame 
of  the  dominant  church  that  it  stood  in  friendly  alliance  with 
a  lecherous  king  and  his  obsequious  court.  Churchly  and 
kingly  coarseness  and  brutality  were  no  match  for  Puritan 
tenacity  and  endurance. 

JAMES  II 

It  was  eminently  fitting  that  the  dissolute  and  perfidious 
Charles  should  secretly  renounce  his  Episcopal  faith  and 
die  in  the  Roman  church,  and  that  the  last  rites  of  that 
church  should  be  administered  by  a  priest  in  disguise 
smuggled  to  his  bedside  up  those  very  back  stairs  by  which  in 
other  days  the  king's  mistresses  had  been  conducted  to  his 


322  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

apartments.  His  less  disreputable  brother  and  successor 
had  been  for  years  an  open  and  zealous  Romanist,  and 
England,  in  exchanging  Charles  for  James,  got  a  king  who 
at  least  was  neither  ashamed  nor  afraid  to  avow  his  church 
connection.  That  connection  would  give  reflecting  Angli- 
cans a  subject  for  meditation.  Through  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Episcopalians  were  riding  the  harrow,  and  the 
Non-conformists  were  underneath.  With  the  advent  of 
James,  it  was  not  impossible  that  they  themselves  would  be 
made  to  feel  some  of  the  miseries  they  had  so  cheerfully  in- 
flicted on  others.  Under  these  changed  conditions  their 
divine-right  dogma  did  not  take  on  a  look  so  gracious  and 
benign.  In  short,  before  that  brief  reign  was  over  they  belied 
all  their  former  protestations,  and  the  duty  of  absolute  obedi- 
ence under  every  conceivable  circumstance  they  were  ready 
to  fling  to  the  winds,  and  they  were  ready  also  to  join  with 
the  Presbyterians,  Independents,  and  Baptists  in  driving 
their  Catholic  tyrant  king  from  his  throne,  and  in  ushering 
in  the  glorious  revolution.  For  once  at  least  Episcopalians 
and  Dissenters,  the  nobility  and  gentry,  the  army  and  civil- 
ians were  of  one  mind,  and  by  their  united  voice  William 
of  Orange  became  king  of  England. 

WILLIAM  AND  MARY 

William  was  a  Dutch  Presbyterian  and  the  stiffest  kind 
of  a  Calvinist.  In  doctrine  he  was  as  immovable  as  Gib- 
raltar, but  in  church  government  and  worship  he  was  pliant 
and  liberal.  He  had  been  trained  in  the  Presbyterian  polity, 
but  he  had  no  aversion  to  Episcopacy,  and  he  believed  in 
the  divine  right  of  neither.  When  he  accepted  the  crown 
he  promised  to  bring  about  "a  good  agreement  between  the 
Church  of  England  and  all  Protestant  dissenters,"  and  this 
he  honestly  endeavored  to  do.     He  wished  the  people  to 


King  Williain's  Act  0}  Toleration  323 

have  the  rehgion  of  their  choice,  and  against  tyranny  and 
persecution  he  set  all  his  power.    Burnet  says  King  William 

always  thought  that  conscience  was  God's  province,  and  that 
it  ought  not  to  be  imposed  upon;  and  his  experience  in  Holland 
made  him  look  on  toleration  as  one  of  the  wisest  acts  of  government. 
He  was  so  true  to  his  principle  herein  that  he  restrained  the  heat  of 
some  who  were  proposing  severe  acts  against  the  papists. 

In  Stuart  days  Episcopacy  had  been  foisted  upon  unwill- 
ing Scotland.  William  sought  to  learn  the  will  of  the  Scots, 
and,  when  he  learned  it,  he  gave  them  back  their  Presby- 
terian church,  but  with  the  gift  he  refused  the  right  to 
persecute  their  Episcopal  neighbors.  For  the  settlement  of 
religious  disputes  among  his  English  subjects  he  set  his 
first  parliament  to  work  on  two  great  projects — the  scheme 
of  Comprehension  and  the  scheme  of  Toleration.  The  first 
proved  chimerical,  and  was  killed  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. It  sought  to  make  the  Church  of  England  wide 
enough  to  embrace  all  Protestant  believers.  Churchmen, 
however,  could  never  bring  themselves  to  trim  their  polity 
and  worship  to  suit  Dissenters;  and  Baptists  and  Quakers 
would  sooner  die  in  their  tracks  than  join  a  national  estab- 
lishment with  its  episcopal  hierarchy  and  liturgical  cere- 
monies. In  no  quarter  did  the  Comprehension  scheme  find 
acceptance  or  favor;  but  the  other  scheme — the  scheme  of 
Toleration — was  framed  into  a  bill  which  passed  both 
houses  of  Parliament  and  became  the  law  of  the  land.  That 
was  a  great  piece  of  legislation,  and  marks  an  epoch  in  the 
struggle  for  religious  liberty.  Exactly  what  was  the  Act 
of  Toleration?  It  was  a  measure  for  the  relief  of  ortho- 
dox Protestant  Dissenters.  It  expressly  excluded  Unitarians 
and  Catholics.  Under  certain  limitations  and  restrictions, 
Trinitarian  Protestant  Non-conformists  could  worship  God 
without  legal  molestation.     The  man  who  wishes  to  break 


324  Established  Church  and  Non-Conjormity 

away  from  the  Established  Church,  to  absent  himself  from 
its  services,  to  drop  the  use  of  its  Prayer-Book,  and  hence- 
forth to  be  a  Christian  after  the  Presbyterian,  Independent, 
Quaker,  or  Baptist  pattern,  must  appear  in  person  before 
the  civil  court  and  have  his  name  registered.  He  must  take 
the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy;  and  he  must  swear 
assent  to  thirty-six  and  one-half  of  the  Thirty-nine  Articles 
of  Religion.  From  the  articles  which  taught  Episcopacy  all 
were  excused ;  from  the  article  which  taught  infant  baptism 
the  Baptists  were  excused;  and  the  Quakers  were  only  re- 
quired to  declare  their  faith  in  the  Trinity  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures.  Complying  with  these  regulations 
the  Dissenter  is  no  longer  required  to  resort  to  the  parish 
church,  nor  to  use  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

Now  if  a  number  of  these  registered  Non-conformists 
wished  to  form  a  congregation  or  assembly,  and  to  meet 
together  for  public  worship,  their  case  must  be  submitted 
to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  or  to  the  civil  court,  and  their 
place  of  worship  must  be  licensed  and  duly  registered  or 
recorded,  it  being  further  provided  that  the  doors  of  this 
worship-place  must  never  be  locked,  barred,  or  bolted.  Com- 
plying with  these  conditions  Non-conformists  could  law- 
fully assemble,  listen  to  their  own  preachers,  administer 
the  ordinances,  and  conduct  worship  according  to  their 
liking. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Act  of  Toleration  did  not  dis- 
establish the  Church  of  England,  nor  repeal  a  single  existing 
statute.  The  various  acts  of  Uniformity  and  Conformity, 
passed  in  the  reigns  of  the  Tudors  and  Stuarts,  were  still 
in  full  force,  as  were  also  the  Test  and  Corporation,  the  Con- 
venticle and  Five-Mile  acts.  Men  who  had  not  registered 
to  worship  with  Dissenters  must  still  attend  the  Anglican 
service.     Dissenters  not  registered,  if  caught  in  a  conven- 


Toleration  Not  Religious  Liberty  325 

tide,  were  still  subject  to  fines  and  imprisonment;  as  were 
also  unregistered  parsons  caught  within  five  miles  of  a 
previous  place  of  preaching.  Persons  caught  worshiping 
in  a  place  not  registered  and  certified  were  treated  as  crimi- 
nals, as  they  were,  also,  if  caught  in  a  registered  place  with 
doors  barred  or  bolted.  No  dissenting  layman  could  hold 
the  most  petty  civil  office  unless  he  received  communion  in 
the  Church  of  England;  and  every  Dissenter  must  share 
with  the  Anglicans  in  the  support  of  that  church.  Non- 
conformists paying  all  the  expenses  of  their  own  churches 
and  also  helping  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  parish  churches. 
Tithes  and  rates  and  parochial  duties  were  levied  as  before, 
and  refusal  to  pay  brought  legal  prosecution.  Nevertheless, 
the  Act  of  Toleration  was  a  momentous  victory  in  the 
struggle  for  religious  liberty.  It  left  the  Church  of  England 
intact,  and  repealed  no  law  by  which  her  position  had  been 
intrenched  and  buttressed.  It  simply  accorded  to  certain 
Englishmen,  under  partial  and  unjust  restrictions,  the  legal 
right  to  sever  their  connection  with  the  Established  Church 
and  to  maintain  their  own  places  and  modes  of  worship. 
Henceforth  all  English  subjects  were  not  by  necessity  bound 
together  in  a  single  ecclesiastico-political  communion.  The 
national  church  was  no  longer  national  in  the  sense  that  all 
Englishmen  are,  "as  by  sovereign  right,  worshipers  within 
its  pale."  That  was  the  beginning  of  that  series  of  victories 
which  has  marked  the  progress  of  freedom  for  the  last  two 
hundred  years. 

SINCE  1689 

The  Toleration  Act,  passed  in  1689,  was  the  first  recog- 
nition in  English  history  of  the  Englishman's  right  to 
worship  God  apart  from  the  National  Establishment.  In 
view  of  this  significant  fact  and  of  its  immediate  and  remote 


326  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformiiy 

consequences,  its  enactment  must  be  looked  upon  as  an  event 
of  the  first  magnitude.  In  itself  the  act  was  so  outrageously 
unjust  as  to  be  nothing  less  than  odious.  Nevertheless,  the 
hour  in  which  it  received  the  king's  signature  marks  a  bril- 
liant epoch  in  the  struggle  for  religious  liberty.  In  that 
hour  was  sounded  the  call  for  a  fresh  contest  with  the 
Established  Church  for  emancipation  from  its  proscriptions. 
Against  non-churchmen  the  English  statute  books  were 
plastered  over  with  iniquitous  enactments  which  violated 
every  principle  of  justice  and  equity.  It  was  the  task  of 
two  hundred  years  to  undo  this  execrable  legislation,  to 
remove  those  disabilities,  and  to  secure  exact  equality  before 
the  law  for  all  English  subjects,  regardless  of  their  religious 
professions.  The  Non-conformists  came  to  feel  that  "abso- 
lute liberty,  just  and  true  liberty,  equal  and  impartial  liberty 
was  the  thing  they  stood  in  need  of;"  and  to  the  attainment 
of  this  end  they  bent  their  energies.  In  the  face  of  the  most 
relentless  opposition,  toward  this  end  for  two  centuries  they 
have  been  steadily  progressing.  The  history  of  religious 
freedom  since  1689  is  the  history  of  the  enlargement  of  the 
toleration  grudgingly  granted  in  the  celebrated  act  of  that 
date.  Decade  after  decade,  bit  by  bit,  the  Established 
Church  has  been  forced  to  yield  its  unrighteous  claims,  and 
to  concede  to  Non-conformists  the  rights  which  are  justly 
theirs.  Complete  equality  before  the  law  and  absolute 
religious  liberty  are  not  yet  the  portion  of  all  men  English 
born,  but  the  day  hastens,  and  on  their  children  will  fall  its 
noonday  light. 

UNITARIANS 

The  Act  of  Toleration  expressly  excluded  the  Unitarians 
from  its  benefits.  Other  laws  were  enacted  which  im- 
prisoned and  outlawed  those  caught  writing,  printing,  pub- 


Relief  Acts  for  Unitarians  and  Catholics  327 

lishing,  or  preaching  against  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity. 
Such  could  neither  sue  nor  be  sued,  neither  bequeath  nor 
receive  property,  neither  offer  bail  nor  find  shelter  in  the 
courts.  To  deny  the  Trinity  was  to  be  guilty  of  blasphemy, 
and,  if  the  guilty  one  were  informed  against,  it  brought  him 
under  the  liability  of  the  most  awful  penalties  short  of 
death.  For  a  whole  century  and  a  quarter  the  holder  of 
this  opinion  was  living  under  the  dread  of  this  doom,  and 
not  until  181 3  did  the  Relief  Act  remove  the  ban  of  the  law 
and  put  the  Unitarian  in  the  same  class  with  other  Dis- 
senters. 

ROMAN  CATHOLICS 

The  Toleration  Act  likewise  excluded  the  Roman 
Catholics.  For  well-nigh  two  hundred  years  in  England 
and  Ireland  they  traveled  a  thorny  path.  In  1700,  Catholic 
priests  were  banished  the  realm.  If  they  returned  they 
were  jailed  for  life.  One  hundred  pounds  rewarded  the 
informer  who  discovered  a  priest  in  the  exercise  of  his 
office.  Suspected  citizens  were  tendered  the  declaration 
against  transubstantiation  and  saint-worship,  refusing  which 
they  could  neither  purchase,  inherit,  nor  hold  any  estate, 
and  their  present  holdings  were  transferred  to  the  next  of 
kin  who  was  a  Protestant.  They  could  neither  educate  their 
children  in  the  Catholic  faith  nor  send  them  abroad  for  that 
purpose.  For  eighty  years  they  lived  under  this  terrible 
law,  until  an  act  for  their  relief  (1779)  annulled  most  of  its 
provisions.  But  the  passing  of  that  act  led  to  riots,  and  the 
howling  mobs  all  over  England  protested  against  conces- 
sions to  "the  followers  of  anti-Christ."  A  decade  later 
another  act  (1791)  gave  them  still  further  relief.  Certain 
old  statutes,  dating  from  Elizabeth's  reign,  were  expunged; 
the  oath  against  transubstantiation  was  no  longer  tendered. 


328  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

and  the  double  land-tax  was  no  longer  imposed;  Catholic 
schools  might  be  opened,  but  the  teacher  must  register  and 
no  Protestant  child  must  be  admitted ;  Catholic  worship  was 
allowed,  but  it  must  not  be  in  open  public  meeting,  and  the 
priest  must  wear  no  distinctive  garb.  The  profession  of  the 
law  was  thrown  open,  and  Catholic  peers  could  have  access 
to  the  person  of  the  king,  though  not  yet  to  their  places  in 
Parliament.  They  must  wait  forty  years  longer  before 
they  could  gain  entrance  to  the  House  of  Lords  (1829). 

Through  all  this  long  period  the  Romanists  in  Ireland 
were  treated  with  the  more  flagrant  injustice.  In  that  island 
a  mere  handful  of  Protestants  held  absolute  sway.  The 
Catholic  Irishman  could  neither  vote  nor  hold  office;  could 
neither  plead  nor  sue  in  court;  could  neither  teach  nor  be 
taught  by  a  Protestant,  nor  go  abroad  for  an  education;  if  a 
Romanist  married  a  Protestant  the  union  was  set  aside  and 
the  officiating  priest  was  hanged;  if  a  priest  or  monk  was 
found  unregistered  he  was  banished,  and  if  he  returned  was 
sent  to  the  gallows.  In  Ireland  the  Church  of  England  was 
the  established  church,  and  the  Catholic  population  was 
forced  to  support  a  religion  professed  by  only  the  merest 
fraction.  Step  by  step  out  of  this  state  the  Irish  struggled  up 
until,  in  1869,  church  disestablishment  was  won,  and 
all  churches  were  put  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality  before 
the  law.  Up  to  the  present  year,  1905,  America  and  Ireland 
are  the  only  countries  in  Christendom  in  which  full  religious 
liberty  has  been  attained. 

The  Catholic  emancipation  in  England  in  recent  years, 
and  the  encroachments  of  the  Catholic  church  on  the 
English  church  itself,  reveal  the  completeness  of  its 
triumph  over  old-time  adversaries.  The  Oxford  Re- 
formers precipitated  a  movement  which  has  sent  great 
numbers   of   Anglicans   of   the   highest   social    and   intel- 


The  Jews  and  Quakers  329 

lectual  standing  into  the  Roman  fold.  Newman  and 
Manning  became  cardinals  in  that  communion,  and  their 
tractarian  and  ritualistic  teachings  have  transformed  High- 
Churchism  into  the  most  thinly  disguised  Romanism;  and 
the  High-Church  party  has  become  dominant  in  the  Church 
of  England.  Most  appropriately,  therefore,  under  these 
favoring  conditions,  could  the  Pope  issue  a  bull,  in  1850, 
setting  up  again  the  papal  hierarchy,  which  had  been  cast 
out  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth — mapping  England  into  dio- 
ceses, over  which  were  placed  papal  bishops,  and  over  all 
the  archbishop  of  Westminster.  Since  the  defection  of 
John  Henry  Newman,  in  1845,  how  greatly  has  the  Roman 
power  increased  in  England,  and  how  thoroughly  has 
Romanism  honeycombed  the  National  Establishment! 

THE  JEWS 

The  Jews  have  always  suffered  at  the  hands  of  Chris- 
tians, and  the  English  Christians  have  not  been  the  least 
intolerant.  These  people,  too,  have  struggled  upward 
toward  an  emancipation  from  political  and  religious 
tyranny.  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  (1753),  an  act 
was  passed  which  permitted  them  to  naturalize,  but  so 
infuriated  were  the  people  that  a  twelfth-month  later  the 
act  had  to  be  repealed.  Steadily,  however,  they  have  gained 
their  ground;  and  today  they  can  sit  in  either  house  of 
Parliament,  and  today  their  synagogue  worship  is  protected 
by  law. 

THE    QUAKERS 

Being  Trinitarians,  the  Quakers  were  included  in  the 
Act  of  Toleration,  but  their  scruples  of  conscience  on  two 
points  brought  them  long  suffering.  Their  Testament 
taught  them  that  the  taking  of  oaths  and  the  voluntary  pay- 
ing of  tithes  were  sinful.    After  a  quarter  of  a  century  they 


33©  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

obtained  relief  from  the  first  by  an  act  which  substituted 
a  new  form  of  affirmation  in  the  place  of  an  oath;  but  in 
their  struggle  against  tithes  they  were  less  successful.  The 
duties  and  rates  to  the  state  church  they  would  not  pay 
except  under  due  process  of  law.  Their  enemies  made  the 
collecting  of  these  small  sums  ruinously  expensive.  It 
sometimes  meant  the  forfeiture  of  all  their  goods,  and 
sometimes  long  terms  of  imprisonment.  In  1736  the 
records  showed  that  great  numbers  of  Quakers  had  been 
prosecuted  in  the  petty  courts,  and  that  in  the  higher  courts 
not  less  than  1,180  cases  had  been  adjudicated.  Three  hun- 
dred and  more  had  been  imprisoned,  and  some  of  these  their 
prison  lot  had  killed.  In  1736  a  bill  was  introduced  for 
their  relief.  Its  sole  end  was,  not  to  abolish  tithes,  but  "to 
cheapen  the  process  of  recovery."  This  simple  and  humane 
bill,  looking  solely  to  a  less  expensive  and  ruinous  way  of 
collecting  tithes  and  parochial  dues,  alarmed  the  Establish- 
ment, and  they  raised  all  over  England  the  cry  the  "church 
in  danger,"  and  they  flooded  Parliament  with  adverse 
petitions.  The  Commons  passed  the  bill,  but  fifteen  bishops 
in  the  House  of  Lords  succeeded  in  killing  it.  It  was 
reserved  for  Quakers  and  other  Non-conformists  to  fight 
the  bishops  and  their  church  for  one  hundred  and  thirty-two 
years  longer  before  they  could  rid  themselves  of  the  en- 
forced support  of  an  ecclesiastical  establishment  which 
they  repudiated.  Not  until  1868  could  Dissenters  loosen 
the  Anglican  clutch  on  their  own  purse-strings. 

PRESBYTERIANS^  INDEPENDENTS^  BAPTISTS 

The  Act  of  Toleration,  designed  to  give  "some  ease  to 
scrupulous  consciences  in  the  exercise  of  religion,"  was 
grudgingly  granted  to  Presbyterians,  Independents,  Bap- 
tists, and  Quakers,  because  persecution  had  utterly  failed  to 


Presbyterians,  Independents,  Baptists  331 

accomplish  its  object.  The  absurdity  and  uselessness, 
though  not  the  impiety  and  injustice,  of  attempting  to  coerce 
conscience  had  been  demonstrated.  To  lash  the  entire  people 
into  the  use  of  one  fixed  form  of  creed  and  ritual  was 
seen  to  be  impossible.  Hence  a  slight  concession  was  rung 
from  the  dominant  party,  impelled  by  a  necessity  from 
which  there  was  no  escape.  The  hostile  laws,  enacted 
under  Tudors  and  Stuarts,  were  still  in  force,  however,  and 
not  one  of  them  should  lose  its  restraining  and  compelling 
power.  There  still  remained  a  full  armory  of  legal  weapons 
which  could  be  used  against  the  adherents  of  Non- 
conformity. The  history  of  the  struggle  for  religious 
liberty  since  1689  is  the  history  of  the  fight  of  Dissenters 
against  churchmen  to  gain  two  points :  to  break  down  every 
legal  disability,  and  to  gain  complete  equality  before  the 
law.  Before  the  Act  of  Toleration  it  had  been  a  struggle 
for  very  existence;  now  it  became  a  struggle  for  exact 
equality  and  even  and  impartial  justice.  Into  the  details 
of  that  conflict  it  is  not  possible  to  enter.  It  must  suffice 
to  note  a  few  of  its  salient  features.  It  is  to  be  remarked, 
in  general,  that  it  was  a  contest  quite  unlike  the  present  war 
between  Japan  and  Russia,  in  which  from  the  very  start  on 
land  and  sea  the  Japanese  have  won  an  uninterrupted 
series  of  victories.  Not  so  were  the  victories  for  freedom 
won.  Often  the  friends  of  liberty  were  less  successful; 
often  disasters  overwhelmed  them,  and  they  knew  the  bit- 
terness of  defeat.  Often  they  laid  siege  to  some  Port 
Arthur,  and  for  long  the  fortress  proved  impregnable. 
Whole  generations  of  men  died  in  the  ditches,  not  making 
an  inch  of  headway.  Often  the  assaults  of  a  century  left 
some  stronghold  still  untaken.  Not  seldom  a  hard-fought 
battle  ended  with  the  forces  routed  and  the  enemy  in  pos- 
session of  the  field. 


332  Established  Church  and  Non-Conjormity 

That  was  an  ugly  setback  when,  in  the  reign  of  Queen 
Anne,  the  Occasional  Conformity  Bill  became  law.  It  was 
inspired  by  bitter  and  intense  hostility  to  Dissenters.  It 
was  aimed  against  men  holding  civil,  military,  or  naval 
offices,  who  were  caught  attending  the  meetings  of  Baptists, 
Presbyterians,  or  Independents.  Such  culprits  lost  their 
positions;  and  no  new  office  could  be  theirs  until  they  had 
communed  three  times  in  the  Church  of  England,  and  could 
prove  that  they  had  not  been  inside  a  Non-conformist  church 
for  a  year. 

That  was  an  ugly  setback  when,  in  the  same  reign,  the 
Schism  Bill  became  law.  The  Dissenters  had  established 
numerous  and  flourishing  schools — by  far  the  best  England 
then  had — which  alarmed  and  enraged  the  High-Church 
party.  The  Schism  Act  struck  a  death-blow  at  these 
schools.  Thenceforth  no  person  was  allowed  to  teach, 
whether  publicly  or  privately,  without,  first,  signing  a  decla- 
ration of  conformity;  and,  secondly,  obtaining  a  license 
from  the  bishop,  which  license  could  not  be  issued  unless  the 
applicant  could  give  a  certificate  that  he  had  taken  the  Lord's 
Supper  for  a  whole  year  in  the  Church  of  England. 

Those  were  ugly  setbacks  when  the  state  took  money 
from  the  public  treasury  to  retrieve  the  fortunes  of  its  wan- 
ing Establishment.  Because  the  Dissenters  were  outstrip- 
ping the  Anglicans  in  raising  meeting-houses  and  paying 
ministers,  therefore  the  state  sought  to  offset  this  enterprise 
by  building  new  Episcopal  churches  and  increasing  the  in- 
comes of  its  poorer  clergy.  So  in  1810,  £100,000  were 
added  to  Queen  Anne's  Bounty,  and  in  18 12,  £400,000  were 
appropriated  for  the  "augmentation  of  church  livings," 
and  the  land-tax  on  church  livings  was  reduced  by  £200,- 
000;  and  in  1818  a  bill  went  through  appropriating 
£1,000,000  for  the  erection  of  new  churches.    Lord  Liver- 


Hard  Struggles  for  Religious  Freedom  t,t,t, 

pool  boasted  that  the  object  was  to  "remove  dissent"  by  the 
legislature,  affording  the  Established  Church  the  means  of 
balancing  the  efforts  of  Dissenters.  Six  years  later,  in  1824, 
Parliament  again  came  to  the  relief  of  its  church  and 
£500,000  more  were  added  to  its  building-fund.  These  are 
specimens  of  some  of  the  victories  Anglicans  won — which 
victories  Dissenters  must  retrieve  at  some  later  period. 
These  were  open-field  victories. 

But  there  were  sieges  as  well  as  battles,  in  which  for 
long  the  issues  hung  in  doubt.  The  acts  passed  in  the  reign 
of  Charles  II  against  Non-conformity  were  so  many  Port 
Arthurs  which  the  army  of  freedom  must  storm  and  cap- 
ture. Again  and  again  and  again  did  Non-conformity  hurl 
its  whole  weight  of  assault  against  these  fortresses  of  tyr- 
anny. For  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  their  heaviest  siege 
guns  were  pounding  at  the  Five-Mile  Act  and  the  Conventicle 
Act  before  their  walls  fell  in  ruins.  It  was  only  after  a  siege 
of  one  hundred  and  forty-five  years  that  a  breach  in  the 
Test  Act  was  made,  and  it  was  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
eight  years  before  the  garrison  surrendered.  It  took  one 
hundred  and  sixty-seven  years  to  capture  the  outer  works  of 
the  Corporation  Act,  and  two  hundred  and  ten  years  to 
destroy  its  inner  citadel.  Those  were  memorable  sieges 
and  notable  victories  in  the  war  of  independence.  Their 
final  dates  are  worthy  of  record.  The  Conventicle  Act  and 
the  Five-Mile  Act  did  not  fall  until  1812;  the  outworks  of 
the  Test  and  Corporation  Act  were  not  taken  until  1828; 
and  the  inner  defenses  did  not  capitulate  until  so  late  as 
1871. 

To  achieve  the  ultimate  end,  there  was  needed  the  batter- 
ing into  ruins  of  these  moss-grown  strongholds  of  despot- 
ism; but  quite  as  essential  were  the  numerous  open-field 
battles  of  which  the  final  results  were  no  less  visible  and 


334  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

decisive.     This  outline  recital  cannot  properly  end  without 
at  least  the  naming  of  a  few  of  these. 

SUBSCRIPTION  TO  THE  THIRTY-NINE  ARTICLES 

For  example,  that  battle  over  subscription  to  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles  is  worthy  of  record.  Why  should  Dissenters, 
who  have  no  part  with  Anglicans,  be  compelled  to  subscribe 
their  creed?  Where  is  the  justice  in  forcing  a  Baptist  or  a 
Quaker  to  give  his  assent  to  thirty-six  and  one-half  of  the 
Episcopal  Articles  of  Religion?  As  early  as  1779  the 
iniquity  and  absurdity  of  this  were  so  borne  in  upon  Par- 
liament that  thenceforth  creed  subscription  was  no  longer 
a  matter  of  compulsion. 

ARMY   AND   NAVY  OFFICERS 

For  example,  again,  what  is  there  in  the  religion  of  a 
Roman  Catholic  or  a  non-conforming  Protestant  which 
disqualifies  him  from  serving  as  an  officer  in  his  country's 
army  and  navy?  Why  is  it  that  only  Anglicans  can  hold 
naval  and  military  commissions?  Is  a  Presbyterian  good 
enough  to  stand  in  the  ranks,  but  not  good  enough  to  wear 
epaulets?  Must  a  man's  church  connection  determine 
whether  he  shall  serve  or  command,  the  Congregationalist 
always  serving  and  the  Episcopalian  always  commanding? 
Is  no  man  fit  to  be  a  lieutenant  or  captain  or  colonel  except 
a  member  of  the  Church  of  England?  That  unjust  and 
puerile  discrimination  was  not  removed  until  18 17.  Since 
that  date  Episcopal  exclusiveness  has  been  relegated  to  its 
merited  oblivion. 

MARRIAGE  LAWS 

Once  again,  the  Non-conformists  had  it  out  with  the 
privileged  clergy  over  the  marriage  laws,  and  wrested  from 
them  their  exclusive  monopoly.     Time  was  when  no  mar- 


Marriage  Laws  and  Church  Rates  335 

riage  was  recognized  as  legal  unless  performed  by  a  regular 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  an  Episcopal 
church,  after  the  Episcopal  ceremony.  From  the  pulpit  of 
the  parish  church  the  banns  must  be  proclaimed  for  three 
successive  Sundays.  To  violate  this  law  meant  for  the  min- 
ister seven  years  transportation,  and  for  the  wedded  pair  a 
life  of  adultery,  and  for  their  children  the  stigma  of 
bastardy.  Dissenting  couples  must  leave  their  own  minister, 
and  repair  to  the  parish  priest,  and  in  the  parish  church  by 
the  parish  ritual  be  joined  in  holy  matrimony.  Perhaps  this 
very  priest  was  a  man  of  unsavory  reputation,  whose  pious 
zeal  was  chiefly  shown  in  the  mean  annoyances  and  petty 
tyrannies  to  which  he  subjected  his  dissenting  neighbors; 
but  he  alone  could  proclaim  the  banns,  and  tie  the  knot,  and 
receive  the  fee.  Through  long  decades  the  Non-conformists 
fought  this  monopoly  of  the  favored  clergy;  and  it  was  not 
until  1836  that  they  were  able  to  triumph  over  it.  At  last 
they  wrenched  from  Parliament  a  law  which  relegated  the 
parish  priest  to  his  proper  place;  and  authorized  the  mar- 
riage of  Dissenters  by  their  own  dissenting  ministers,  in 
their  own  dissenting  chapels,  by  their  own  dissenting  for- 
mulae. No  longer  could  priestly  services  and  Prayer-Book 
rituals  be  forced  on  unwilling  and  protesting  parties. 

ABOLITION  OF  CHURCH   RATES 

That  was  a  long  and  strenuous  conflict  in  which  Non- 
conformity fought  the  paying  of  rates  and  parochial  dues 
to  the  support  of  the  Established  Church.  In  ancient  times 
each  parish  paid  for  the  repair  of  its  church  and  churchyard 
by  a  special  rate;  but  after  the  legalizing  of  non-Episcopal 
worship  what  had  the  Dissenter  to  do  with  the  repairing  of 
the  parish  church,  whose  threshold  he  never  crossed? 
Quite  as  consistently  would  the  Anglican  be  compelled  to 


336  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

sustain  the  dissenting  chapel.  Against  church  rates  protests 
never  ceased,  but  the  burdened  ones  always  cried  in  vain. 
So  they  protested  and  suffered  on  down  to  1833  when  they 
were  almost  strong  enough  to  break  the  bondage.  Failing 
this  time,  they  renewed  the  contest  for  another  thirty  years, 
when  a  tie  vote  in  Parliament  revealed  their  growing 
strength,  only  the  speaker's  ballot  losing  them  the  day.  A 
few  years  later,  however,  they  drove  the  enemy  from  the 
field,  and,  in  1868,  the  Church  Rate  Abolition  Act  ended 
forever  this  form  of  oppression. 

UNIVERSITIES  OPENED 

That  was  a  long  and  hotly  contested  battle  which  wrung 
from  the  Established  Church  its  monopoly  of  the  national 
universities.  For  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  years  it  was 
impossible  to  break  this  proscription.  Only  Anglicans 
could  enjoy  the  benefits  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  They 
claimed  that  the  universities  were  founded  by  churchmen 
and  for  churchmen,  and  so  only  good  churchmen  could 
enter  their  precincts — men  who  attended  church  services, 
and  subscribed  church  formularies,  and  pledged  themselves 
to  church  advancement.  Its  studies,  its  degrees,  its  fellow- 
ships, its  teaching,  government,  honors,  and  emoluments 
were  all  for  them  and  them  alone.  No  Dissenter  could 
profane  their  halls.  The  struggle  was  long,  and  the  defeats 
were  many,  and  the  victory  came  only  piecemeal.  The  walls 
of  Oxford  were  the  first  to  be  battered  down.  In  1854  the 
University  Reform  Act  made  a  wide-open  breach  through 
which  the  Dissenters  entered  in.  The  church  was  shorn  of 
its  power  to  shut  against  them  its  gates,  its  lecture-rooms, 
or  its  degrees.  Thenceforth  Non-conformists  could  matricu- 
late and  graduate  without  having  a  single  church  formu- 


University  and  Burial  Laws  Amended  337 

lary  thrust  in  their  faces.  Nearly  twenty  years  later,  in 
1871,  they  added,  in  part,  Cambridge  and  Durham  to  their 
Oxford  conquest.  By  the  University  Test  Act  it  was 
decreed  that  all  these  universities  "shall  be  freely  acces- 
sible to  the  nation."  By  the  act  the  Dissenter  might  take  any 
lay  academic  degree;  might  hold  any  lay  academic  office. 
He  might  be  a  Baptist,  a  Unitarian,  or  an  infidel,  and  the 
state  church  could  not  shackle  him.  These  privileges  were 
his  without  subscribing  any  religious  test  or  formulary 
whatsoever.  Still  he  had  not  yet  won  complete  equality 
before  the  law.  There  remained  some  disability  still.  He 
could  not  be  the  head  of  a  college;  could  not  be  elected  to  a 
professorship  in  divinity;  could  not  receive  the  degree  of 
doctor  of  divinity.  These  were  positions  and  honors  still 
reserved  for  churchmen.  Ten  years  later,  in  1882,  the 
friends  of  freedom  won  out  still  another  point  or  two.  By 
the  law  of  that  year,  neither  heads  of  colleges  nor  fellows 
in  the  university  were  required  to  be  churchmen.  (Their 
head  and  fellow  correspond  to  our  president  and  professor.) 
So  the  highest  administrative  and  scholastic  offices  in  the 
English  universities  became  accessible  to  Non-conformists. 
There  still  remains  one  mean  distinction.  Only  a  Church  of 
England  divine  is  eligible  to  the  degree  of  doctor  of 
divinity.  At  last  it  has  arrived  at  this,  that  the  Established 
Church  which  once  controlled  everything  now  controls 
nothing.  These  national  institutions  have  come  to  be  truly 
national;  and  ecclesiastical  hampering  and  bondage  are 
things  of  the  past. 

THE  RIGHT  OF  BURIAL 

A  long-continued  battle  which  only  ended  near  the  close 
of  this  last  century  was  over  the  graveyards.  The  Estab- 
lished Church  claimed  exclusive  ownership,  and  to  perform 


338  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

religious  services  in  them  was  the  exclusive  right  of  the 
church  clergy.  Moreover,  they  had  been  acquired  and  con- 
secrated as  the  last  resting-place  of  a  particular  class  of 
people,  viz.,  for  those  only  who  had  been  sealed  by  the 
sacrament  of  holy  baptism,  which  meant  those  who  had 
been  sprinkled  in  babyhood.  It  would  be  an  awful  pro- 
fanation to  bury  in  one  of  these  yards  a  man  who  had  not 
been  so  sealed,  and  by  a  man  who  was  not  in  holy  orders, 
and  with  a  ceremony  other  than  that  prescribed  in  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer. 

Against  all  this  the  Non-conformists  entered  their 
unceasing  protest.  The  graveyards  belonged,  not  to  some 
sect,  but  to  the  people  at  large.  They  were  the  property  of 
the  nation.  The  Anglicans  had  in  them  only  such  rights  as 
pertained  to  all  Englishmen.  An  unbaptized  man  had  the 
same  rights  to  burial  as  other  men,  and  a  Quaker  burial 
service  was  as  sacred  as  the  Prayer-Book  ritual,  and  no 
ceremony  at  all  was  quite  as  lawful  as  that  devised  by  the 
Episcopalians. 

So  the  issues  were  joined  which  ended  in  1880  in  a  com- 
plete victory  for  the  Dissenters.  The  Burial  Laws  Amend- 
ment Act,  passed  in  that  year,  admitted  the  Non-conformists 
to  the  graveyards,  and  gave  them  the  right  to  bury  their 
dead  therein,  and  with  such  Christian  and  orderly  service 
at  the  grave  as  they  shall  deem  fit,  or  without  any  such 
services  at  all. 

Since  1880  the  Episcopal  rector  can  bear  his  dead  to  the 
yard  and  read  over  him  the  prescribed  formulary,  and  no 
one  in  the  world  can  say  him  nay.  And  precisely  the  same 
liberty  the  law  allows  to  ministers  of  every  other  com- 
munion. And  if  friends  wish  to  bury  their  dead  without 
either  minister  or  ceremony  there  is  no  churchyard  law  to 
stand  in  their  way. 


Concluding  Review  of  the  Struggle  339 

Thus  have  we  surveyed,  in  these  two  papers,  the  struggle 
for  liberty  from  the  reign  of  Edward  VI  to  the  reign  of 
Edward  VII.  In  the  sixteenth  century,  under  Edward  and 
Elizabeth,  the  Protestant  Church  of  England  was  getting 
itself  into  shape — making  its  Prayer-Book,  formulating  its 
Articles  of  Religion,  and  using  its  power  to  force  all 
Englishmen  into  absolute  conformity.  In  the  same  period 
the  various  forms  of  dissent  were  definitely  shaping  them- 
selves— the  Low-Church  Episcopal  form,  the  Presbyterian 
form,  the  Independent  form,  and  the  Baptist  form,  each 
form  more  radical  than  the  preceding,  more  unlike  the 
established  type,  and  approximating  more  nearly  to  the  New 
Testament  model. 

At  the  end  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  in  spite  of  the  efforts 
to  kill  them,  these  non-conforming  churches  were  vigorous 
and  growing. 

In  the  seventeenth  century,  under  the  Stuarts,  James 
and  Charles  and  Charles  and  James,  the  horrible  despotism 
in  church  and  state  meant  only  shackles  and  slaughter  for 
those  who  opposed  the  established  order.  Nevertheless,  it 
was  impossible  for  satanic  fury  to  kill  the  spirit  of  liberty. 

With  the  advent  of  William,  and  the  Act  of  Toleration 
in  1689,  there  began  a  conflict  between  the  state  church  and 
the  free  churches  which  has  continued  through  two  cen- 
turies, and  in  which,  bit  by  bit,  the  free  churches  have 
destroyed  the  special  privileges  of  the  state  church,  and,  bit 
by  bit,  have  gained  equality  before  the  law.  Throughout 
the  conflict  they  have  steadily  advanced  in  numbers  and 
power,  until  today  they  not  only  outnumber  their  adver- 
saries, but  constitute  the  moral  force  of  the  nation.  No 
one  has  ever  heard  of  the  Anglican  conscience,  but  the  Non- 
conformist conscience  is  a  very  real  thing  against  which  no 
English  statesman  finds  it  profitable  to  contend.    Lord  Pal- 


340  Established  Church  and  Non-Conformity 

merston  said :  "In  this  country  legislation  follows  the  con- 
science of  Non-conformists."  Lord  John  Russell  said : 
"Dissenters  have  passed  the  Reform  Bill,  they  have  passed 
the  abolition  of  slavery:  they  will  pass  the  abolition  of 
church  rates."    And  a  little  later  they  did. 

I  have  taken  our  history  down  to  the  close  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  final  chapter  in  the  struggle  for  re- 
ligious liberty  has  not  yet  been  written.  The  new  century 
opened  with  a  reactionary  movement  the  outcome  of  which 
no  man  can  see.  In  1902  the  Anglican  bishops  and  High- 
Church  clergy  won  from  Balfour's  Conservative  govern- 
ment the  Education  Act,  which  turns  over  the  children  of  the 
land  to  Episcopal  and  papistical  training,  for  which  the 
rate-payers  must  foot  the  bills,  though  they  can  have  no 
voice  in  either  the  policy  or  management  of  the  schools.  A 
great  army  of  Non-conformist  passive  resisters  has  risen 
up,  and  today  in  default  of  payment  of  school  rates  their 
property  is  being  sold  at  auction,  and  their  bodies  are  being 
lodged  in  English  jails. 

A  great  battle  is  waging  on  English  soil.  On  the  one 
side  are  the  Anglicans  and  the  Catholics;  on  the  other  are 
the  Jews,  Methodists,  Quakers,  Baptists,  Unitarians,  Pres- 
byterians, Independents,  and  all  other  sects  which  resist  the 
paying  of  school  rates  for  the  support  of  a  system  of  edu- 
cation over  which  they  have  no  control,  and  which  turns 
their  children  into  Anglicans  and  Papists.  It  is  a  great 
battle,  the  ultimate  outcome  of  which  cannot  be  doubtful, 
but  for  the  present  the  High-Church  Romanizing  party 
holds  the  field.  Before  the  final  victory  can  come  the 
church  must  be  disestablished  and  disendowed.  This  has 
already  occurred  in  Ireland,  and  most  men  look  for  it  to 
come  next  in  Wales,  then  in  Scotland,  and  last  of  all  in 
England. 


XIII 
THE  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1902 


XIII 

THE  EDUCATION  ACT  OF  1902  1 

At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  and  the  opening 
of  the  nineteenth,  education  for  the  poor  of  England  did 
not  exist.  Nineteen  out  of  twenty  of  the  children  never 
saw  the  inside  of  a  schoolroom.  Throughout  England  a 
poor  man  who  could  read  was  scarcely  to  be  found. 

Robert  Raikes  lived  at  Gloucester,  and  in  1780  he  started 
on  Simday  a  school  for  the  secular  instruction  of  the 
neglected  children  of  his  town. 

Joseph  Lancaster  was  a  young  Quaker  and  he  lived 
with  his  father  in  Southwark  across  the  river  from  Lon- 
don. In  1796  he  started  a  school  for  poor  children,  in  his 
father's  house.  In  less  than  two  years  he  had  more  than 
a  thousand  scholars  under  his  charge.  Of  course  he  could 
not  himself  teach  them  all,  and  so  he  set  the  older  boys,  who 
had  a  little  education,  to  teaching  the  younger,  who  had  none 
at  all.  Young  Lancaster  met  with  astounding  success,  and 
in  twelve  years  (i.  e.,  in  1808)  his  noble  endeavor  had 
grown  into  the  "Royal  Lancastrian  Institution  for  the  Edu- 
cation of  the  Poor."  Later  it  took  the  name  of  the  "British 
and  Foreign  School  Society." 

*  If  anyone  thinks  that  Dean  Hulbert's  arraignment  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church  for  its  opposition  to  the  popular  control  of  education  is  too 
.  severe,  let  him  read  Qayton's  recently  published  booklet,  The  Bishops 
as  Legislators,  from  which  the  following  facts  are  given:  In  1902  the 
Lords  passed  the  Education  Bill  by  147  to  37  votes;  among  whom  were  14 
bishops  in  the  affirmative  and  only  one  against.  Their  attitude  toward 
the  following  amendments  is  also  illuminating:  (i)  An  amendment  to 
compel  local  educational  authorities  to  undertake  secondary  education 
was  lost.     It  was  supported  by  3  bishops,   12  opposing.      (2)   An  amend- 

343 


344  Education  Act  of  igo2 

Against  these  schools  the  AngHcans,  led  by  the  Anglican 
clergy  of  high  and  low  degree,  raised  a  storm  of  protest. 
They  protested  against  educating  the  poor.  They  dwelt 
upon  the  "evils  of  being  able  to  read,"  and  of  teaching  the 
poor  to  read  the  Bible.  They  declared  that  those  doomed 
to  a  life  of  toil  and  drudgery  would  be  rendered  discon- 
tented and  unhappy  in  their  lot  if  they  were  taught  to  read, 
write,  and  cipher.  They  stormed  against  the  poor  being 
taught  by  a  Quaker,  and  they  called  Lancaster  an  "apostate 
Julian,"  and  stigmatized  his  school  scheme  as  "wild,  absurd, 
and  anti-Christian,"  and  as  calculated  to  breed  "heresies 
and  blasphemies."  But  Lancaster's  school  system,  attacked 
and  maligned  in  the  most  outrageous  manner,  nevertheless 
made  rapid  progress,  and  the  British  and  Foreign  School 
Society  set  up  undenominational,  non-sectarian  schools  all 
over  England. 

When  the  Established  Church  saw  that  unmeasured 
terms  of  abuse  failed  to  check  this  extraordinary  success, 

merit  to  allow  denominational  teaching  in  secondary  schools  and  colleges 
was  carried;  i6  bishops  favoring,  none  against.  (3)  An  amendment  for  a 
"conscience  clause"  in  all  training  colleges  was  lost ;  14  bishops  voting 
against,  and  none  for.  (4)  An  amendment  in  favor  of  two  instead  of 
four  foundation  managers  for  non-provided  (voluntary)  schools  was  lost ; 
17  bishops  against  the  amendment,  i  for.  (5)  An  amendment  making 
the  local  authority  (and  not  the  religious  body)  responsible  for  the 
"wear  and  tear"  of  voluntary  schools  was  carried  ;  18  bishops  for  and  none 
against.  (6)  An  amendment  to  allow  education  authorities  to  appoint 
all  teachers  "without  reference  to  religious  creed  or  denomination"  was 
lost;  13  bishops  opposing,  i  for.  (7)  An  amendment  to  confine  the 
control  of  the  religious  teaching  to  the  foundation  managers  (excluding 
the  appointed  managers)  was  lost;  11  bishops  against,  3  for.  (8)  An 
amendment  to  make  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  the  deciding  authority  in 
any  question  concerning  the  religious  instruction  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land schools  was  lost;  i  bishop  supporting,  13  against.  (9)  An 
amendment  to  prevent  school  managers  from  excluding  parochial  clergy- 
men   from    church    schools    was    lost;    17    bishops    supporting,    i    against. 


Anglicans  Oppose  Popular  Education  345 

and,  moreover,  that  this  "Goliath  of  schismatics  was  en- 
grossing the  instruction  of  the  common  people"  to  the  very- 
great  detriment  of  the  Anglican  communion,  the  bishops 
and  clergy  took  another  tack.  If  the  poor  must  be  edu- 
cated, as  seems  inevitable,  then  all  that  is  left  for  us  is  to 
educate  them  ourselves.  Though  we  deprecate  the  poor 
being  taught  either  to  write  or  to  cipher,  yet  the  necessity 
is  upon  us  to  take  the  matter  into  our  own  hands,  and  to 
prevent  this  spread  of  error  and  sectarianism  by  a  "correct, 
orderly,  clerical  system"  of  education  which  shall  be  under 
the  exclusive  supervision  of  the  prelates  of  the  church. 

It  was  Dr.  Andrew  Bell  who  first  stigmatized  popular 
education  as  "utopian,"  as  making  the  poor  discontented 
and  unhappy,  as  breaking  down  distinctions  of  ranks  and 
classes  in  English  society,  as  fraught  with  manifold  evils 
both  to  the  people  at  large  and  to  the  church  established  by 
law,  and  it  was  this  same  Dr.  Andrew  Bell  who  afterward 
turned  about  and  advocated  the  founding  of  schools  in 
which  the  Episcopal  liturgy  and  catechism  should  be  taught ; 

(10)  An  amendment  that  local  education  authorities  should  permit  politi- 
cal meetings  in  schools  outside  school  hours  was  lost ;  2  bishops  favor- 
ing, s  against.  (11)  An  amendment  to  allow  denominational  teaching  to 
be  given  without  charge  in  all  schools,  outside  ordinary  school  hours, 
at  the  request  of  parents,  was  lost;  14  for,  i  against.  (12)  An  amend- 
ment to  allow  local  education  authorities  to  appeal  to  the  board  of 
education  for  the  closing  of  schools  held  to  be  unnecessary  was  lost ;  i 
bishop  for,  12  against.  In  November,  1906,  the  Liberal  government 
passed  a  relief  measure  by  an  overwhelming  majority  and  sent  it  to  the 
House  of  Lords  for  approval.  That  aristocratic  and  ecclesiastical  assem- 
bly battered  the  bill  almost  beyond  recognition  and  sent  the  mutilated 
measure  back  to  the  Commons.  When  the  measure  was  passed  by  the 
Liberal  government  in  1906,  thirty  bishops  assailed  the  act  and  the 
bishops  in  the  House  of  Lords  almost  unanimously  voted  to  destroy  the 
work  which  the  Commons  had  so  patiently  and  laboriously  accomplished 
for  the  settlement  of  the  most  difficult  problem  which  for  many  years  has 
agitated    the    English   nation. — The    Editor. 


346  Education  Act  of  1Q02 

and  under  whose  influence  the  ''National  School  Society" 
was  organized  in  181 1. 

We  now  have  two  societies  for  promoting  popular  edu- 
cation, viz. :  The  British  and  Foreign  School  Society, 
founded  in  1808,  and  sustained  by  Dissenters,  and  the 
National  School  Society,  founded  in  181 1,  and  sustained 
by  Anglicans.  These  two  societies  entered  into  sharp 
rivalry  in  founding  popular  schools  for  the  neglected  poor. 
It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  during  all  this  time  these 
agencies  were  supported  by  voluntary  offerings.  The 
church  as  a  church  did  nothing  for  education,  and  the  state 
took  no  part  in  the  education  of  the  poor. 

It  was  not  until  1833  that  the  English  government  made 
a  grant  for  educational  purposes.  From  1833  to  1839, 
£20,000  were  yearly  appropriated.  In  1839  the  annual 
grant  was  raised  to  £30,000.  The  very  year  in  which  Par- 
liament voted  this  sum  of  £30,000  for  the  education  of  the 
children  of  England,  it  voted  £70,000  for  building  stables 
for  the  queen's  horses.  Later  the  government  was  aroused 
to  a  deeper  interest.  From  1839  the  annual  grant  was 
gradually  increased  until  in  1859 — twenty  years  later — it 
had  reached  £1,000,000.  This  money  had  been  used  in 
supporting  normal  training  colleges,  building  schoolhouses, 
and  maintaining  schools. 

So  matters  ran  on  until  1870.  At  that  date  the  two 
school  societies  of  which  I  have  spoken — one  supported  by 
Churchmen  and  the  other  by  Dissenters — had  a  very  large 
number  of  schools  in  operation.  There  were  1,300,000 
children  in  schools  aided  by  the  state.  There  were  1,000,000 
children  in  schools  which  received  no  state  aid  and  which 
were  not  subject  to  state  inspection  and  which  were  utterly 
inefficient.  Then,  besides  this,  there  were  not  less  than 
2,000,000  children  who  were  not  in  school  at  all. 


The  Education  Act  oj  i8yo  347 

To  remedy  these  defects  the  Education  Act  of  1870  was 
passed,  and  under  that  act  the  schools  were  running  until 
the  system  was  completely  upset  by  the  Education  Act  of 
1902.  All  over  England  were  these  voluntary  schools, 
founded  by  the  British  and  Foreign  School  Society  and  the 
National  School  Society,  and  supported  by  private  donations 
and  by  state  grants.  Some  of  these  schools  were  efficient, 
some  were  extremely  defective.  They  were  maintained  for 
a  double  purpose  (just  as  Roman  Catholic  parochial  schools 
are  maintained  in  our  country)  :  (i)  to  give  the  children  a 
secular  education;  and  (2)  to  train  them  in  sectarianism. 

Now  the  Act  of  1870  introduced  some  radical  changes. 
The  government  broke  all  England  into  school  districts. 
Then  it  said  that  in  each  district  there  must  be  provided 
ample  elementary  education.  In  districts  where  school  pro- 
vision was  inadequate,  it  gave  six  months'  time  in  which 
voluntary  agency  might  supply  this  deficiency.  If  at  the 
end  of  six  months  the  deficiency  had  not  been  provided  for, 
then  a  school  board,  elected  by  the  rate-payers,  was  to  be  at 
once  formed.  To  this  school  board,  elected  by  the  rate- 
payers, was  given  the  power  to  levy  a  rate  sufficient  to 
support  the  school  which  it  created.  In  the  voluntary 
schools,  partly  sustained  by  private  donations,  there  might 
be  given  religious,  sectarian  instruction  at  the  beginning 
or  ending  of  a  school  session,  but  any  parent  might  with- 
draw his  child  from  this  denominational  teaching  if  he 
saw  fit. 

In  the  board  schools,  on  the  other  hand,  while  there 
might  be  religious  instruction,  or  not,  as  the  board  elected, 
in  no  instance  was  the  teaching  of  a  catechism  or  the  creed 
of  a  particular  church  to  be  allowed.  No  attempt  to  prose- 
lytize the  children  to  any  religious  body  was  permitted. 


348  The  Education  Act  0}  1Q02 

By  the  Act  of  1870  the  attendance  of  all  children 
between  the  ages  of  five  and  thirteen  was  made  compulsory. 

The  Church  of  England,  through  its  National  School 
Society  and  the  Society  for  Promoting  Christian  Knowl- 
edge, was  not  slow  in  improving  its  six  months  of  grace. 
In  this  year,  1870,  it  made  more  than  3,000  applications 
for  building-grants.  In  districts  where  provision  for  ele- 
mentary education  was  still  inadequate,  the  newly  created 
school  boards  made  up  the  deficiency. 

So  we  see  that  since  1870  there  have  been  in  England 
two  kinds  of  schools:  (i)  the  voluntary,  and  (2)  the 
board  schools.  In  the  former  sectarianism  can  be  taught, 
though  any  parent  can  withdraw  his  child  during  the  sec- 
tarian period.  In  the  latter  the  school  board  can  do  as  it 
pleases  about  imparting  religious  instruction  (like  Bible- 
reading,  etc.),  but  can  on  no  account  give  a  denominational 
turn  to  the  religious  teaching,  and  parents  who  do  not  want 
even  this  religious  teaching  can  withdraw  their  children 
from  it. 

So  matters  have  run  on  since  1870.  These  are  some 
of  the  results  that  have  followed :  ( i )  The  Non- 
conformists have  been  satisfied  with  the  board  schools.  In 
these  schools  their  children  have  received  a  proper  moral 
and  religious,  as  well  as  scholastic,  training.  (2)  The  Church 
of  England  people  have  greatly  preferred  the  voluntary 
schools,  in  which  they  could  impart  their  own  sectarian 
tenets.  (3)  It  is  conceded  by  all  that  ^fl^j/ca^/owa/Zy  the  board 
schools  are  vastly  superior  to  the  voluntary  schools.  Their 
teachers  are  better  paid  and  are  of  a  very  much  higher 
grade  intellectually,  and  in  every  way  more  competent  to 
impart  instruction.  (4)  In  the  last  thirty  years  the  Church 
of  England  has  greatly  changed.  The  ritualistic  party  has 
increased  in  power  and  has  moved  rapidly  toward  Rome. 


Purpose  of  New  Education  Bill  349 

They  would  gladly  be  subject  to  the  Pope,  if  the  Pope 
would  recognize  Anglican  orders;  and  in  their  beliefs  and 
ceremonies  there  is  little  left  to  distinguish  them  from 
Rome  itself.  They  are  Romanists  in  the  English  church. 
Now  this  is  the  very  party  and  these  are  the  very  men  who 
have  gained  possession  of  the  voluntary  schools,  and  are 
instilling  Romanism  into  the  minds  of  children  and  youth. 

The  children  of  England  (more  than  5,000,000  in  all) 
are  to  be  found  in  these  two  classes  of  schools.  The 
Wesleyans  and  Roman  Catholics  also  sustain  schools,  but 
the  figures  are  small.  In  the  Anglican  schools  there  are 
2,300,000  pupils  on  the  roll ;  in  the  board  schools,  2,900,000. 
In  the  Anglican  schools  the  average  attendance  is  1,882,000; 
in  the  board  schools,  2,260,000.  So  it  appears  that  in  num- 
bers the  two  kinds  of  schools  are  nearly  equal,  the  board 
schools  being  somewhat  in  the  lead. 

Now,  in  the  year  1902,  Mr.  Balfour  introduced  into  the 
House  of  Commons  a  new  education  bill  which  com- 
pletely upsets  the  system  of  education  I  have  described.  In 
December,  1902,  it  passed  both  the  Commons  and  the  Lords, 
and  is  today  the  law  of  the  land.  It  went  into  effect  on 
March  26,  1903. 

This  act  was  concocted  by  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  especially  by  the  ritualistic  or  Romanizing 
section  of  that  church.  It  became  evident  to  that  party  in 
the  Established  Church  that  they  were  losing  ground;  that 
the  board  schools  were  becoming  more  and  more  efficient 
and  popular,  and  that  their  own  schools  were  falling  be- 
hind; that  the  voluntary  contributions  for  the  support  of 
their  schools  were  diminishing;  and  that  the  outlook  in 
general  was  far  from  auspicious.  To  regain  their  waning 
power,  to  secure  access  to  the  children  of  the  land  for 
proselyting  purposes,  and  to  saddle  the  entire  expense  of 


35°  The  Education  Act  of  igoz 

this  enterprise  on  the  nation,  they  devised  this  education 
bill,  which  a  subservient  Conservative  government  actually- 
passed  into  an  act. 

Now  this  educational  act  which  Mr.  Balfour  engineered 
through  Parliament  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  understand. 
It  is  involved,  complicated,  and,  in  many  of  its  minor  fea- 
tures, ambiguous.  I  have  read  the  act  carefully,  but  to  one 
not  perfectly  familiar  with  previous  educational  enactments 
it  is  utterly  unintelligible.  Men  who  are  familiar  make  the 
same  complaint.  Some  of  the  leading  advocates  of  the 
measure,  in  public  addresses,  bitterly  accused  the  Non- 
conformist ministers  of  insincerity  and  lying  in  their  asser- 
tion that  the  act  is  intricate  and  obscure;  but  on  the  floor 
of  the  House  of  Commons  such  men  as  Asquith,  Lloyd- 
George,  Bannerman,  and  Bryce  made  the  same  charges; 
and  so  I  am  bound  to  believe  that  the  Dissenting  preachers 
are  right. 

But  though  the  act  lacks  clearness  and  definiteness  in 
many  of  its  provisions — apparently  made  so  purposely — 
yet  its  main  aims  and  inevitable  results  were  apparent  to  all. 
(i)  In  the  first  place.  It  destroyed  the  board  schools — the 
schools  in  which  were  enrolled  half  the  children  of  England; 
the  schools  which  were  the  best  equipped,  having  the  best 
buildings  and  appointments,  paying  the  best  salaries,  em- 
ploying the  best  teachers,  imparting  the  best  instruction, 
were  killed  at  a  blow.  (2)  Alost  of  the  duties  which 
formerly  devolved  upon  the  school  boards  are  transferred 
to  the  county  councils — a  body  of  men  fully  occupied  with 
other  matters  and  with  no  experience  in  school  affairs. 
(3)  The  voluntary  schools  are  controlled  by  six  managers; 
four  of  whom  are  chosen  by  the  parish  clergyman,  himself 
being  one  of  the  number,  thus  giving  the  Anglican  church 
a  two-thirds  vote  in  the  selection  of  teachers  and  in  the 


Non-Conformist  Opposition  to  the  Bill  351 

school  management.  (4)  The  expense  of  this  school  system 
is  borne  out  of  the  taxes  and  rates — the  church  being  re- 
quired only  to  keep  the  schoolhouse  in  repair. 

When  Mr.  Balfour's  educational  scheme  was  laid  before 
Parliament,  and  its  revolutionary  and  reactionary  pro- 
visions became  known,  there  was  raised  such  a  storm  of 
protest  as  had  not  been  witnessed  in  England  since  the 
Reformation.  On  a  score  of  grounds  the  Non-conformists 
(or  Dissenters)  and  many  moderate  Churchmen  offered  the 
most  decided  opposition  to  the  bill :  ( i )  Here  is  a  bill  that 
grants  rate-aid  to  denominational  instruction — it  is  a  state 
endowment  of  religion.  (2)  Here  is  a  bill  that  makes  four 
of  the  six  school  managers  the  adherents  of  a  particular 
denomination  (the  Church  of  England),  and  schools  thus 
managed  must  be  paid  for  out  of  the  public  rates — taxa- 
tion without  representation.  (3)  Here  is  a  bill  that  pro- 
vides that  the  teachers  shall  be  appointed,  not  by  the 
rate-payers,  but  by  the  managers,  four  of  whom  must  be 
Anglicans — once  again  taxation  without  representation. 
(4)  Here  is  a  bill  that  by  its  very  provisions  shuts  out  great 
numbers  of  qualified  and  competent  teachers — shuts  them 
out  of  the  majority  of  the  schools  because  they  are  not 
members  of  the  Episcopal  church.  That  is  a  revival  of  the 
old  imposition  of  tests.  Think  of  it,  there  are  16,410  head- 
teacherships,  paid  for  by  Baptists  and  others,  open  only  to 
members  of  the  Anglican  church. 

This  radical  and  revolutionary  measure  was  introduced 
by  Mr.  Balfour  into  the  House  of  Commons  on  March  24, 
1902.  On  the  same  date  it  was  ordered  printed.  The  bill 
consisted  of  twenty  clauses,  some  of  these  clauses  having 
numerous  subsections.  The  debate  on  the  bill,  at  its  second 
reading,  began  May  5,  1902.  On  May  8,  its  second  reading 
was  carried  by  a  vote  of  402  to  165.     On  June  3,  the  bill 


352  The  Education  Act  of  1Q02 

passed  to  its  committee  stage.  By  July  i,  clause  3  had  been 
carried  by  a  vote  of  232  to  88.  On  July  2,  clause  4  was  up 
for  consideration,  and  on  July  8,  it  passed  by  a  vote  of  175 
to  15.  Before  July  16,  the  fifth  clause  was  passed,  and  on 
that  date  clause  6  was  added  to  the  bill  by  a  vote  of  287  to 
102.  On  August  7,  clause  7  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  220 
to  98.  On  August  8,  Parliament  adjourned  until  October 
16,  1902. 

Here  were  two  months  in  this  vacation  period  in  which 
the  nation  could  express  its  sentiment.  The  friends  of  the 
bill  made  scarcely  any  movement,  but  its  enemies  roused 
the  nation  to  a  spirit  of  opposition,  the  like  of  which  has 
not  been  seen  since  Reformation  times.  In  all  parts  of 
England  and  Wales,  where  the  bill  was  to  be  in  operation 
(London,  Scotland,  and  Ireland  were  not  included)  in 
immense  massmeetings,  popular  indignation  was  stirred  to 
the  depths.  The  leading  Non-conformist  ministers  were 
the  eloquent  speakers  at  these  vast  gatherings,  and  asso- 
ciated with  them  were  the  leaders  of  the  Liberal  party.  The 
man  who  attracted  most  attention  and  who  rendered  the 
most  effective  service  with  both  tongue  and  pen  was  Dr. 
Clifford,  the  foremost  Baptist  preacher  of  London.  Dr. 
Fairbairn,  of  Mansfield  College,  gave  to  the  movement  all 
his  time  and  strength,  as  did  likewise  Dr.  Robertson  Nichol, 
of  the  British  Weekly.  Dr.  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  the  great- 
est Methodist  divine,  and  Dr.  Joseph  Parker  did  what  they 
could,  but  both  were  ill,  and  both  died  before  the  cam- 
paign was  over. 

The  most  prominent  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons belonging  to  the  Liberal  party  were  also  in  the  field 
and  rendered  most  valiant  service,  the  most  conspicuous 
being  Asquith,  Lord  Spencer,  and  Bryce,  the  author  of 
The  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  The  American  Common- 


Liberals  Oppose  the  Bill  353 

wealth.  The  Liberal  press  of  the  country  was  also  all  aflame, 
and  England  and  Wales  were  plastered  over  with  handbills 
and  manifestos,  and  placards,  and  tracts,  and  dodgers  set- 
ting forth  the  objectionable  features  of  the  bill.  It  was  a 
great  popular  uprising  in  favor  of  justice  and  equality  and 
freedom. 

By  all  these  means,  it  was  urged  upon  the  attention  of 
the  English  people  that  the  bill  does  nothing  for  improve- 
ment in  education ;  that  it  makes  no  provision  for  the  train- 
ing of  teachers ;  that  it  destroys  the  school  boards  that  have 
done  most  of  all  for  the  advancement  of  education;  that  it 
gives  to  sectarian  schools  liberal  imperial  grants  and  pro- 
vides for  their  support  out  of  the  rates;  that  it  gives  to 
denominational  managers  the  control  of  voluntary  schools, 
the  choice  of  teachers,  and  the  right  to  propagate  sectarian 
ideas  and  practices  in  schools  supported  by  the  state ;  that  it 
gives  to  the  Anglican  church  the  training  of  children  whose 
parents  are  Non-conformists;  that  so  far  from  being  an 
educational  bill  it  is  a  bill  for  the  relief  and  support  of  sec- 
tarian schools;  that  it  is  a  positive  hindrance  to  secondary 
education,  since  it  lays  so  heavy  a  compulsory  rate  for  the 
maintenance  of  denominational  schools  that  the  rate-payers 
cannot  bear  this  double  burden;  that  it  iniquitously  main- 
tains the  voluntary  schools  out  of  the  taxes  and  rates  while 
depriving  the  rate-payers  of  control  and  management;  that 
the  passage  of  the  bill  would  inevitably  lead  to  increased 
sectarian  bitterness;  that  the  bill  was  so  constructed  that 
practically  all  new  schools  will  be  established  and  con- 
ducted in  the  interest  of  the  Church  of  England,  these 
schools  being  supported  out  of  the  public  treasury;  that  it 
recognizes  and  permits  the  imposition  of  a  religious  test 
for  teachers  as  a  condition  of  employment  in  schools  con- 
fessedly run  in  the  interest  of  a  particular  sect. 


354  The  Education  Act  of  igo2 

There  are  three  or  four  features  about  this  bill  that 
were  galling  to  Non-conformists  in  the  last  extreme.  It 
is  galling  to  be  forced  to  pay  for  schools  in  the  manage- 
ment of  which  they  have  no  voice.  They  feel  that  here  is 
an  invasion  of  their  constitutional  rights.  It  destroys  the 
very  birthright  of  the  British  citizen.  It  is  a  return  to  the 
force-loans  and  ship-money  for  resisting  which  Pym  and 
Hampden  went  to  prison  rather  than  pay.  It  is  galling  to 
Non-conformists  to  have  their  children  subjected  to  the 
blighting  influence  of  a  sectarian  training,  to  the  neglect 
and  injury  of  their  scholastic  education.  The  teacher  in 
this  school  is  not  selected  because  of  his  special  fitness  for 
imparting  instruction,  but  because  he  is  the  pliant  tool  of 
the  church  and  will  do  the  priest's  bidding.  It  is  galling 
because  he  is  forced  to  pay  for  subjecting  his  children  to 
sectarian  influences  which  he  sees  to  be  in  the  last  degree 
vicious  and  deadly.  So  rapidly  has  the  High-Ckurch 
party  gained  control  in  these  voluntary  schools  that  moder- 
ate Churchmen  joined  with  the  Non-conformists  in  fighting 
Balfour's  bill.  To  people  who  still  believe  in  the  principles 
of  the  Reformation  and  who  still  call  themselves  Protes- 
tants, it  is  simply  unbearable.  Until  conscience  is  dead,  they 
can  never  consent  to  be  taxed  and  rated  to  the  end  that 
their  own  children  shall  be  turned  from  little  Dissenters 
into  Romanists;  can  never  consent  to  support  schools  in 
which  Mariolatry  and  the  confessional,  and  fasting- 
communion  are  taught,  in  which  children  are  taken  to  the 
mass,  and  into  which  the  worship  of  the  Sacred  Heart  is 
introduced. 

And  so,  naturally  enough,  the  Non-conformists  raised 
the  question.  Shall  we  submit  to  this  injustice?  Will  our 
consciences  allow  us  to  submit  ?  We  cheerfully  pay  a  sewer 
rate,  or  a  highway  rate,  or  a  police  rate,  but  conscience  for- 


Non-Conformists  Threaten  Passive  Resistance         355 

bids  us  to  pay  a  school  rate  to  have  our  children  turned  into 
Papists.  This  rate  we  will  not  pay.  That  is  an  infringe- 
ment of  the  rights  of  conscience. 

The  great  evangelical  bodies  of  England  and  Wales 
resolved  upon  this  course.  They  resolved  upon  passive 
resistance.  They  will  not  resist  the  bailiffs,  but  they  will 
not  pay  the  rates.  Let  the  officers  of  the  law  seize  and  sell 
their  goods,  or  even  cast  their  persons  into  prison,  but  the 
rate  they  will  not  directly  pay.  I  was  at  a  great  meeting  of 
the  London  Baptist  Association,  addressed  by  Robertson 
Nichol,  at  which  this  resolve  was  solemnly  and  unanimously 
made.  Later  in  national  assembly  at  Birmingham  the  Bap- 
tists passed  the  same  resolution.  The  Independents,  or 
Congregationalists,  at  their  annual  national  gathering  made 
the  same  resolve.  So  did  the  Presbyterians.  So  did  the 
Methodists. 

All  this  took  place  during  the  adjournment,  or  recess, 
of  Parliament.  It  was  generally  believed,  certainly  in  Non- 
conformist circles,  that  Balfour  would  drop  the  bill.  It 
could  not  be  that  the  government  would  press  so  hateful  a 
measure,  in  the  face  of  so  determined  an  opposition. 

The  House  of  Commons  reconvened  on  October  16,  and 
took  up  the  Education  Bill  precisely  where  it  had  been 
dropped  on  August  8.  The  government  whips  had  drawn 
the  members  of  the  Conservative  party  to  London  in  force. 
The  Liberal  whips  had  not  been  so  successful.  When  the 
voting  began,  it  was  revealed  that  the  Conservative  ranks 
had  not  been  broken.  Balfour  had  his  party  perfectly  in 
hand. 

Even  then  the  Dissenters  believed  that  the  measure  would 
be  abandoned.    In  a  talk  I  had  with  Dr.  Fairbairn,  he  said, 

Balfour  has  something  up  his  sleeve.  I  don't  know  what  it  is,  but 
it  will  be  disclosed  in  a  few  days,    I  think  he  is  continuing  this  fight 


356  The  Education  Act  0}  igo2 

just  to  show  his  strength,  to  show  he  could  press  this  bill  through  if 
he  were  so  minded.  When  he  has  convinced  the  people  of  that,  he 
will   change  his  tactics. 

Fairbairn  had  no  idea  he  would  crowd  the  bill  to  a 
finish.  Through  October,  November,  and  part  of  Decem- 
ber, the  House  of  Commons  was  engrossed  with  this  piece 
of  legislation.  The  Liberal  leaders  fought  it  inch  by  inch, 
but  they  were  outvoted  two  to  one.  Having  run  its  career 
in  the  Commons,  it  was  passed  up  to  the  Lords,  where  it  was 
speedily  ratified.  In  December,  1902,  the  bill  became  an 
act,  and  went  into  operation  March  26,  1903. 

Before  the  bill  actually  passed,  the  Non-conformists 
threatened  passive  resistance.  Balfour  laughed  to  scorn  a 
deputation  of  representative  Dissenters  who  waited  upon 
him.  As  soon  as  the  bill  became  law  the  national  council 
of  the  evangelical  free  churches  began  forthwith  to  organize 
the  opposition.  The  local  free-church  councils  sent  to  the 
executive  of  the  national  council  assurances  and  pledges  of 
co-operation.  A  National  Passive  Resistance  Committee 
was  formed,  of  which  Dr.  Clifford  was  made  chairman, 
whose  sole  function  it  was  to  discourage  the  payment  of 
rates.  "No-rate"  meetings  were  held  all  over  England  and 
Wales.  Local  passive  resistance  committees  were  every- 
where formed  to  operate  under  the  direction  of  the  national 
committee. 

When  the  government  began  to  attempt  to  collect  the 
rates,  they  were  met  with  passive  resistance.  Thereupon 
the  officers  of  the  law  seized  the  goods  of  the  resisters.  In 
many  instances  the  government  officials  flatly  refused  to 
auction  off  the  goods.  Where  an  auction  took  place,  there 
was  immediately  held  an  immense  and  enthusiastic  meeting 
to  protest  against  the  iniquity  of  the  act.  At  first  the 
Anglicans  and  Conservatives  laughed  at  the  Non-conform- 


Passive  Resistance  and  Liberal  Victory  357 

ists  for  their  foolish  attempt  to  resist  the  law,  but  the  laugh- 
ing mood  did  not  continue  long.  Baptists,  Independents, 
Presbyterians,  Unitarians,  Quakers,  and  many  Wesleyans 
were  showing  a  spirit  which  was  no  laughing  matter. 
Every  month  a  vast  army  of  passive  resisters  was  increasing 
in  numbers,  in  zeal,  in  effectiveness.  This  multitude  of 
Englishmen,  who  were  cheerfully  enduring  the  despoiling  of 
their  goods  and  the  imprisonment  of  their  persons,  was  made 
up  of  all  classes — widows,  laborers,  artisans,  physicians, 
lawyers,  ministers,  judges,  members  of  Parliament,  uni- 
versity professors,  people  of  all  faiths  and  of  no  faith,  and 
some  Low-Church  Episcopalians.  It  was  a  great  tidal-wave 
which,  with  ever-augmenting  power,  was  sweeping  over 
England. 

While  all  this  was  going  on,  Balfour  and  his  Conserva- 
tive party  were  going  to  pieces.  Once  and  again  the  party 
came  perilously  near  to  wreckage.  Balfour  continued  to 
cling  to  the  reins  of  power,  to  the  disgust  of  the  nation. 
Chamberlain  retired  from  office  and  divided  the  country  on 
financial  questions.  At  last  came  the  collapse  which  had 
been  so  long  expected,  and  Balfour  and  his  cabinet  resigned 
their  portfolios. 

Then  followed  the  election,  and  it  was  such  an  election 
as  England  has  seldom  seen.  Avalanches,  cyclones,  tidal- 
waves,  and  earthquakes  are  very  tame  words  with  which  to 
describe  it.  The  Liberals  routed  the  Conservatives,  foot, 
horse,  and  dragoons.  It  was  little  short  of  annihilation.  It 
was  in  the  main  the  Non-conformists  who  did  it.  They 
were  thinking  about  the  Education  Act,  and  every  candidate 
for  whom  they  voted  they  pledged  to  the  undoing  of  that 
iniquitous  piece  of  legislation. 

To  Bannerman  was  intrusted  the  naming  of  a  Liberal 
ministry.     In  the  electoral  campaign,  to  the  Liberal  party 


358  The  Education  Act  of  igo2 

was  given  the  solid  Non-conformist  vote,  on  the  pledge  to 
repeal  or  radically  modify  Balfour's  Education  Act  of  1902. 

THE    1906  BILL  TO    CORRECT   THE  EDUCATION   ACT   OF    I902 

Bannerman  and  his  party  are  not  unmindful  of  their 
ante-election  pledge.  On  April  9,  1906,  Mr.  Birrill,  presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Education,  introduced  into  the  House 
of  Commons  an  education  bill  designed  to  kill  the  hateful 
features  of  Balfour's  act.  The  following  are  the  provisions 
of  greatest  moment:  (i)  Hereafter  no  religious  or  sec- 
tarian test  shall  be  imposed  on  teachers.  Teachers  are  not 
to  be  excluded  from  the  schools  because  they  happen  to  be 
Baptists  or  non-Anglicans.  (2)  The  control  and  manage- 
ment of  schools  shall  be  transferred  from  the  county  or  city 
councils  to  local  school  authorities.  (3)  Non-conformists 
shall  no  longer  be  taxed  or  rated  for  the  support  of  Anglican 
schools.  (4)  No  church  school  can  hereafter  obtain  sup- 
port from  public  funds,  unless  it  shall  dispense  with  religious 
tests  for  its  teachers  and  place  itself  under  the  control  of 
the  local  educational  authorities,  and  confine  its  religious 
teaching  to  undenominational  doctrines.  (5)  Only  schools 
under  the  control  of  the  local  educational  authorities  shall 
be  recognized  after  January  i,  1908,  and  only  on  such 
schools  shall  one  penny  of  public  money  be  spent.  (6) 
Church  schools  can  still  obtain  money  from  the  state 
treasury,  but  only  on  three  conditions,  viz. :  (a)  that  they 
impose  no  religious,  denominational  or  sectarian  test  on  their 
teachers;  (&)  that  whatever  religion  they  teach  it  shall  be 
of  an  entirely  non-sectarian  character;  (c)  that  the  school 
be  under  the  regulation  of  the  local  school  authorities. 
(7)  It  is  to  be  noted,  in  the  last  place,  that  the  bill  does 
not  totally  secularize  the  schools.  In  church  schools  taken 
over  by  the  educational  authorities,  religious  or  sectarian 


Amendment  Bill  of  igo6  359 

education  may  be  impartial  under  the  following  conditions : 

(a)  The  local  school  authorities  must  give  their  consent; 

(b)  Not  more  than  two  mornings  weekly  may  be  set  apart 
for  this  purpose;  (c)  This  extra-religious  teaching  shall  not 
be  imposed  on  the  regular  teaching  staff;  (d)  Attendance 
of  pupils  shall  be  voluntary,  not  compulsory;  (e)  The 
entire  expense  of  this  kind  of  teaching  shall  be  borne  by 
those  who  are  interested  in  it,  and  not  one  penny  of  it  shall 
come  from  the  public  treasury — from  taxes,  rates,  or  any 
other  source  with  which  the  state  or  government  is  con- 
cerned. Those  who  want  sectarian  teaching  can  have  it 
twice  a  week  for  such  children  as  are  minded  to  attend, 
but  they  must  pay  the  entire  expense  of  such  teaching  out 
of  their  own  pockets.  (/)  Once  more,  the  bill  provides 
for  an  annual  grant  of  a  million  pounds  from  the  royal 
exchequer  for  educational  purposes. 

When  the  bill  passed  its  first  reading  there  were  present 
as  interested  spectators  the  Anglican  archbishops  of  Canter- 
bury and  York  and  the  Roman  Catholic  archbishop  of  West- 
minster. These  worthy  gentlemen  were  the  exploiters  of 
Balfour's  act,  and  it  is  not  impossible  they  will  live  to  see 
their  nefarious  work  teetotally  undone.  That  is  not  so  cer- 
tain however.  It  is  a  long  way  from  the  entrance  of  a  bill 
to  the  issuance  of  an  act.  This  bill  will  not  get  through 
without  the  most  determined  opposition.  Already  the 
Anglicans  and  the  Romanists  are  raising  a  furious  cry.  It 
is  not  impossible  that  amendments  will  be  carried  which  will 
destroy  some  of  the  best  features  of  the  bill.  We  must  not 
forget  that  the  Conservative  party  will  fight  it  inch  by  inch. 
All  the  high  Anglicans  will  fight  it.  All  the  Romanists  will 
fight  it.  The  Irish  members  (being  Catholics)  will  fight  it. 
Very  likely  most  of  the  Labor  Party,  which  is  vastly 
stronger  than  in  any  previous  Parliament,  will  fight  it.  They 


360  The  Education  Act  of  igo2 

will  fight  it  because  of  its  provisions  for  religion.  They 
wish  to  see  the  schools  completely  secularized  as  they  are  in 
the  United  States.  Then  if  the  bill  works  its  way  through 
the  House  of  Commons,  what  will  be  its  fate  in  the  House 
of  Lords?  Nevertheless,  we  ought  not  to  be  pessimistic. 
The  Liberal  majority  is  tremendously  strong,  and  the 
Liberal  party  is  pledged  to  kill  Balfour's  act.  At  any  rate 
this  is  the  main  feature  of  the  Liberal  programme,  and 
everything  else  must  give  way  to  this.  Ultimately  the  right 
must  triumph. 

In  a  great  meeting  held  by  members  of  the  free  churches 
and  the  Liberal  associations,  after  the  Education  Bill  be- 
came an  Act,  James  Bryce  used  these  prophetic  words : 

The  friends  of  education  will  not  rest  until  they  have  established 
a  truly  national  system  of  education — a  system  based  upon  constitu- 
tional principles,  emancipated  from  clerical  control — which  shall  know 
no  conscience  clause,  permit  no  tests,  and  a  system  which  shall  enlist 
local  sympathy  and  energy.  This  is  the  greatest  source  of  strength  we 
can  have  in  the  task  of  enabling  Britain,  through  the  provision  of  an 
enlightened  and  highly  trained  people,  to  hold  the  place  she  has  won 
among  the  nations  of  the  world. 


XIV 

THE  BAPTISTS  OF  TODAY  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 
AND  IRELAND 


XIV 

THE  BAPTISTS  OF  TODAY  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 
AND  IRELAND 

I  am  to  speak  of  the  Baptists  of  today  (December,  1906) 
in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  statistics  for  1905  show- 
that  there  are  426,563  members  of  Baptist  churches  in 
England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Wales.  The  increase  in 
1905  over  the  preceding  year  was  31,752;  but  this  was 
altogether  exceptional,  and  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  remark- 
able revival  in  Wales.  Ordinarily,  as  the  statistics  for  the 
last  twelve  or  fifteen  years  show,  the  normal  average  in- 
crease is  about  six  thousand  a  year. 

In  proportion  to  population  the  Baptists  are  least  numer- 
ous in  Ireland  and  most  numerous  in  Wales.  In  Wales, 
with  a  population  of  two  milHons,  are  140,000  Baptists;  in 
England,  with  thirty  millions,  are  265,000  Baptists;  in  Scot- 
land, with  four  and  one-half  millions,  are  20,000  Baptists; 
in  Ireland,  with  four  and  one-half  millions,  are  3,000  Bap- 
tists. That  is  to  say :  In  Wales,  the  Baptists  are  as  i  to 
14;  in  England,  as  i  to  112;  in  Scotland,  as  i  to  223;  in 
Ireland,  as  i  to  1,500. 

Among  evangelical  free  churches  the  Presbyterians  are 
the  strongest  body  in  Scotland,  the  Baptists  in  Wales;  and 
the  Methodists  in  England. 

In  numbers  our  American  Baptists  far  outstrip  their 
brethren  across  the  sea.  The  Baptists  in  our  own  north- 
ern states,  as  compared  with  the  Baptists  in  England,  are  as 
1,000,000  to  265,000;  while  our  northern  and  southern 
Baptists  taken  together  (white  and  black),  compared  with 

363 


364  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

the  Baptists  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  are  as  4,500,000 
to  426,000. 

These  British  Baptists,  nearly  half  a  million  in  num- 
ber, are  sustaining  3,000  churches,  presided  over  by  2,000 
pastors  in  charge,  and  5,500  local  preachers   (statistics  of 

1905)- 

Besides  the  local  churches  and  missions  there  are  many 
societies  of  a  more  general  character,  created  to  carry  for- 
ward the  benevolent,  moral,  and  missionary  enterprises  of 
the  denomination.  The  Baptist  Handbook  for  1905  names 
thirty  of  these,  giving  their  corporate  titles,  their  yearly 
incomes,  and  their  managing  officers.  Most  of  these  socie- 
ties are  small,  and  some  of  them  have  outlived  their  useful- 
ness. Their  purposes  are  to  aid  aged  ministers,  to  relieve 
widows  and  orphans,  to  provide  cheap  and  safe  life  insur- 
ance, to  distribute  tracts  and  Bibles,  to  translate  the  Scrip- 
tures, to  promote  total  abstinence,  to  liquidate  debts  on 
meeting-houses,  etc.  One  society,  founded  in  171 7,  has  for 
its  specific  object  the  sustaining  of  churches  and  ministers 
of  the  Particular  Baptist  denomination;  one  exists  to  in- 
crease the  number  of  Strict  Communion  Baptist  churches; 
and  one  to  carry  on  a  Strict  Communion  Baptist  mission  in 
southern  India. 

Among  these  numerous  societies  there  is  one  that  is 
neither  small  nor  unimportant,  viz.,  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Society,  formed  in  1792  by  Carey,  Fuller,  and  their  asso- 
ciates. Its  successful  missionary  operations  are  carried  on 
in  India,  Ceylon,  China,  Palestine,  the  Congo,  the  West 
Indies,  Brittany,  and  Italy.  It  is  the  one  foreign  missionary 
society  to  which  the  Baptists  of  England,  Scotland,  Ireland, 
and  Wales  make  their  contributions,  which  amount  to  be- 
tween eighty  thousand  and  ninety  thousand  pounds  a  year, 
i.  e.,  something  over  four  hundred  thousand  dollars.     This 


The  Baptist  Union  365 

is  doing  considerably  better  than  our  Missionary  Union, 
and  vastly  better  than  the  Foreign  Board  of  the  Southern 
Convention,  when  the  comparison  takes  into  account  our 
superior  numbers. 

THE  BAPTIST  UNION  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  IRELAND 

We  now  come  to  an  organization  more  general  in  its 
scope  than  any  other — an  organization  which  embraces  all 
the  Baptist  enterprises  of  wide  public  interest  except  for- 
eign missions.  It  is  known  as  the  Baptist  Union  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland.  It  is  a  union,  denominationally,  edu- 
cationally, theologically,  ministerially,  associationally,  pub- 
licationally,  and  benevolently,  of  practically  all  our  Baptist 
forces. 

The  history  of  the  origin  and  growth  of  the  Baptist 
Union  is  of  exceeding  interest.  Its  beginning  dates  from 
181 3.  Primarily,  its  creation  was  necessitated  by  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Established  Church  toward  non-conformity. 
Baptist  pastors  were  in  the  way  of  going  out  on  evangeliz- 
ing tours.  They  preached  in  chapels,  in  private  houses,  and 
in  the  market  halls.  Revivals  attended  these  services,  and 
many  were  won  to  a  better  life.  The  Episcopal  clergy  took 
umbrage  at  this.  They  had  never  raised  a  cry  against 
spreading  drunkenness  nor  against  open  licentiousness,  but 
the  preaching  of  the  gospel  by  men  not  in  holy  orders 
roused  their  animosity  and  opposition.  The  bishop  of 
Rochester  (Horsley)  warned  his  clergy  against  these  men 
who  were  plotting  to  overturn  the  throne  and  the  altar. 
They  were  maliciously  charged  with  being  traitors  to  their 
country  and  leagued  together  in  a  conspiracy  against  Christ. 
Mob  violence  was  turned  loose  upon  them,  and  the  cries 
were  raised,  "For  Church  and  King,"  and,  "Down  with 
Dissent"    Episcopal  families  of  rank  turned  on  their  domes- 


366  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

tic  servants  and  cast  them  out  of  employment  unless  they 
would  quit  attending  Baptist  conventicles,  and  set  up  a 
boycott  by  refusing  to  trade  with  Dissenters. 

Though  the  Baptists  were  extremely  individualistic, 
jealous  of  any  interference  with  their  personal  liberty,  and 
tenacious  to  the  last  degree  of  church  independency,  they 
came  gradually  to  feel  that  they  must  combine  among  them- 
selves if  they  were  not  to  be  trodden  out  of  existence.  So 
the  idea  of  organic  union  began  to  form  itself.  A  writer 
in  The  Baptist  Magazine,  in  1812,  said: 

The  Baptists  are  very  numerous  in  England  and  Wales,  but  they 
know  little  of  their  own  strength.  In  their  disunited  state,  their 
importance  dwindles  almost  to  nothing.  Every  consideration  calls  on 
us  in  the  most  impressive  manner  to  cry  out  until  all  our  brethren 
hear,  "Union,  Union,"  yes  union  of  the  most  extensive,  firm,  and 
durable  nature. 

Another  declared,  "The  Baptists  have  the  best  cause,  but 
the  worst  conducted."  The  feeling  grew  that  too  much 
independence  had  reigned  too  long  in  the  churches.  The 
feeling  grew  that  these  separated  forces  ought  to  be  welded 
together,  so  that  the  strength  of  the  whole  might  be  brought 
for  the  succor  and  defense  of  each.  A  meeting  was  called 
to  canvass  the  situation.  It  was  held  in  Dr.  Rippon's 
church  in  London.  There  and  then  the  Baptist  Union  took 
its  initial  step.  It  was  inaugurated  by  about  sixty  Baptist 
ministers  who  were  in  attendance.  Dr.  Rippon  was  chosen 
chairman,  and,  in  his  address,  outlined  the  policy.  He 
said,  in  substance,  that  for  several  years  the  Calvinistic 
Baptist  churches  had  felt  the  need  of  such  a  union,  and  that 
its  general  objects  ought  to  be  the  raising  of  money  for 
the  support  of  missionaries,  the  gathering  of  information 
about  the  condition  of  the  churches  throughout  the  country, 
the  assisting  of  our  academies  for  the  training  of  a  more 


Test  and  Corporation  Acts  Repealed  367 

efficient  ministry,  the  devising  of  the  best  methods  for  cate- 
chizing the  young  people  and  children,  the  making  of 
provision  for  the  education  of  the  children  of  deceased 
ministers,  and  for  the  support  of  aged  pastors,  widows,  and 
orphans,  etc. 

A  series  of  resolutions  was  passed  at  this  initial  meeting, 
to  the  effect  that  a  union  is  desirable,  that  an  annual  meeting 
be  held  in  London  in  June,  next  year  (1813),  that  the 
churches  and  associations  be  asked  to  send  messengers,  and 
that  the  London  ministers  act  as  a  committee  of  arrange- 
ments. So  the  Baptist  Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
was  formed  in  London  in  1813. 

From  1813  to  1832  the  Union  was  not  in  a  very  pros- 
perous condition.  There  still  remained  considerable  luke- 
warmness  and  some  suspicion  and  hostility.  The  records 
were  not  carefully  preserved,  and  it  is  conjectured  that 
there  were  years  in  which  no  meeting  was  held. 

As  the  origin  of  the  Union  in  18 13  was  occasioned  by 
the  attitude  of  the  Established  Church,  so  its  revival  in  1832 
is  to  be  attributed  to  the  same  cause.  Li  1828  Lord  John 
Russell  gave  notice  in  Parliament  that  he  would  move  for 
the  repeal  of  the  Test  and  Corporation  acts.  These  two 
laws  bore  heavily  and  iniquitously  on  Non-conformists. 
Churchmen  fought  against  the  repeal.  Dissenters  for  it.  A 
terrific  campaign  pro  and  con  was  waged,  but  the  Baptists 
realized  their  disadvantage  because  of  their  ununited,  un- 
organized condition.  The  two  hateful  acts  were  repealed, 
but  in  the  struggle  it  became  apparent  that  if  the  Baptists 
were  to  bear  their  part  in  withstanding  the  attacks  on  non- 
conformity, they  must  be  more  solidly  united.  So  from 
1832,  the  Baptist  Union  entered  upon  a  new  career.  Today 
it  is  in  compact  working  order  and  enjoys  the  enthusiastic 
support  of  the  denomination. 


368  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

Its  constitution  affirms  the  sole  headship  and  authority 
of  Jesus  Christ;  the  independence  of  the  local  churches; 
the  immersion  of  believers  as  the  true  baptism;  the  duty  of 
every  disciple  to  take  part  in  the  evangelization  of  the 
world.  It  does  not  impose  upon  its  members  any  system 
of  theology — whether  Arminian  or  Calvinistic.  Its  con- 
stituency consists  of  churches,  associations  of  churches,  and 
approved  ministers. 

DEPARTMENTS 

For  purposes  of  practical  efficiency  the  Baptist  Union 
is  broken  up  into  thirteen  departments : 

1.  The  corporation. — Under  articles  of  association  (or  a 
charter,  we  would  say)  the  Union  is  legally  incorporated, 
thereby  enabling  it  to  hold  securities  and  other  property, 
and  to  engage  in  financial  transactions. 

2.  General  expenses. — This  is  the  department  which 
bears  the  cost  of  working  the  general  business  of  the  Union. 
These  office  or  other  expenses  amount  to  about  two  thousand 
pounds  a  year. 

3.  Publication  department. — This  department  maintains 
a  Baptist  bookstore  and  a  general  publishing  and  book-selling 
business.  It  also  issues  Baptist  and  evangelistic  tracts,  and 
is  concerned  with  the  production  and  sale  of  The  Baptist 
Church  Hymnal;  and  finally,  it  publishes  the  Baptist  Times 
and  Freeman,  the  official  newspaper  and  organ  of  the  de- 
nomination. 

4.  The  home  zvork. — This  is  the  amalgamation  of 
several  agencies  that  had  a  previous  independent  existence : 
(i)  In  1797  was  formed  The  Baptist  Home  Mission 
Society,  which  was  incorporated  in  the  Union  in  1882; 
(2)  in  1870  was  established  the  Augumentation  Fund  (to 
supplement  ministers'  salaries)  ;  and  (3)  in  1893  the  Church 


Departments  of  the  Baptist  Union  369 

Extension   Fund    (for  Baptist  church  extension  in  large 
towns). 

Now,  in  1904,  all  three  of  these  societies  were  formed 
into  one,  and  became  the  Home  Work  Department  of  the 
Baptist  Union.  The  object  is  to  employ  ministers  and 
evangelists ;  to  found  churches ;  to  establish  Sunday  schools ; 
to  distribute  Bibles,  tracts,  and  Christian  literature. 

5.  The  annuity  department. — The  design  of  the  depart- 
ment is  to  provide  annuities  for  pastors,  teachers,  secre- 
taries, and  missionaries,  and  for  their  widows  and  orphans. 
It  is  a  sort  of  life  insurance,  by  which  provision  can  be 
made  for  old  age  and  for  the  widows  and  orphans  of  the 
members.  An  entrance  fee  must  be  paid,  and  annual  pay- 
ments made  according  to  the  age  of  the  member. 

6.  The  education  department. — This  is  a  scheme  de- 
vised to  aid  Baptist  pastors  in  the  education  of  their 
children. 

7.  The  Home  of  Rest. — A  home  is  provided  at  Brighton, 
a  beautiful  watering-place  on  the  English  Channel,  for  the 
use  of  ministers  and  missionaries.  It  has  accommodations 
for  about  thirty  visitors. 

8.  The  ministerial  recognition  department. — This  is 
something  quite  unique.  Its  object  is  "to  prevent  the  un- 
worthy and  unfit  from  entering  the  ministry;"  and  to  assist 
the  worthy  and  qualified  in  finding  pastorates.  The  Baptist 
Union  has  a  standing  committee,  which  has  this  delicate 
and  difficult  matter  in  charge.  Men  who  wish  to  be  recog- 
nized as  accredited  Baptist  ministers  must  make  their  peace 
with  this  committee.  The  committee  proceeds  under  a  sys- 
tem of  rules  and  regulations.  An  applicant  who  has  gradu- 
ated from  a  recognized  college  must  present  the  testimonial 
of  the  president  and  one  professor  as  to  his  character,  pro- 
ficiency, graduation,  etc.     The  applicant  must  also  present 


37o  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

another  testimonial  as  to  his  moral  and  personal  fitness  for 
the  ministry.  An  applicant  who  is  not  a  college  graduate 
is  subjected  to  two  written  examinations.  A  list  of  text- 
books is  provided  for  two  extended  courses  of  reading  in 
theology,  general  history,  homiletics,  church  history,  etc. 
On  the  basis  of  these  textbooks,  the  first  and  final  examina- 
tions are  conducted. 

The  Baptist  Union  urges  the  churches  to  safeguard  their 
own  interests  and  the  interests  of  the  denomination  against 
unworthy  or  unqualified  ministers  by  refusing  to  employ 
pastors  who  are  not  accredited  by  the  Recognition  Com- 
mittee. In  doubtful  cases  churches  are  urged  to  correspond 
with  the  committee.  Cases  that  are  really  doubtful  are  very 
few  in  number,  because  the  Baptist  Union  publishes  in  its 
yearly  Handbook  a  complete  list  of  all  the  recognized  and 
accredited  ministers  in  the  British  Isles.  Under  each  name 
in  the  list  there  also  appear  the  college  from  which  the 
minister  graduated,  the  degrees  he  holds,  and  the  institu- 
tions that  granted  them,  the  churches  of  which  he  has  been 
pastor,  and  in  connection  with  each  of  these  items,  the  appro- 
priate data.  In  this  way  the  educational  and  pastoral  his- 
tory of  each  minister  is  seen  at  a  glance.  If  a  man's  name 
does  not  appear  in  the  list,  it  is  morally  certain  that  some- 
thing is  wrong.  If  the  man  is  all  right,  he  need  have  no  fear 
of  the  ministerial  Recognition  Committee;  but  if  he  is  an 
ignoramus  or  a  fraud,  the  committee  will  be  likely  to  find  it 
out.  That  is  the  very  business  of  the  committee.  It  is  an 
excellent  device,  by  which  the  churches  and  worthy  ministers 
protect  themselves  against  deceivers  and  disreputables. 

9.  The  local  preachers'  organisation. — The  object  of  this 
is  to  give  public  and  official  recognition  to  local  preachers, 
and  to  assist  them  in  preparing  for  greater  usefulness.  To 
get  his  name  in  the  accredited  list,  the  local  preacher  must  be 


Departments  0}  the  Baptist  Union  371 

a  member  of  a  Baptist  church,  and  must  pass  the  prescribed 
examinations.  He  must  also  hold  himself  in  readiness  to 
do  regular  work  if  called  upon  by  his  church.  The  Union 
holds  itself  pledged  to  provide  circulating  libraries  of  suit- 
able books,  to  prepare  and  publish  annual  courses  of  study, 
and  to  promote  conferences  and  lectures  for  the  training  of 
local  preachers. 

10.  The  Young  People's  Union. — The  object  of  this  is 
to  federate  the  various  young  people's  societies;  to  bring 
them  into  vital  connection  with  the  Baptist  Union;  to  pro- 
mote their  study  of  Baptist  history  and  principles,  and  to 
enlist  them  in  the  life  and  work  of  the  denomination. 

11.  The  Chapel  Property  Committee. — It  is  the  duty  of 
this  committee  to  obtain  information  as  to  the  titles  and 
holdings  of  all  properties;  as  to  the  names  of  the  trustees; 
and  as  to  the  custody  of  the  trust  deeds.  The  end  in  view 
is  to  see  that  the  titles  to  church  properties  are  in  legal 
shape,  that  the  administration  of  these  properties  is  accord- 
ing to  law ;  and  to  be  on  the  watch  that  properties  belonging 
to  the  denomination  are  not  alienated  and  lost. 

12.  The  committee  of  arbitrators. — If  any  church  be- 
longing to  the  Baptist  Union  gets  to  quarreling,  its  dispute 
may  be  submitted  to  this  board  of  arbitration,  whose  de- 
cision is  final.  The  disgrace  and  expense  of  going  to  law 
may  in  this  way  be  avoided.  The  arbitrators  do  not  receive 
any  fee  or  pecuniary  reward  for  their  services,  but  their 
necessary  expenses  are  borne  in  equal  parts  by  the  parties 
in  dispute.  In  order  to  preserve  intact  the  inalienable  rights 
of  Christian  liberty,  it  is  distinctly  understood  and  declared 
that  the  reference  of  any  dispute  to  the  committee  is  wholly 
voluntary. 

13.  The  library. — The  Baptist  Union  maintains  a  library 
which  is  designed  mainly  for  the  preservation  of  literary 


372  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

works  written  by  Baptists  and  of  works  relating  to  the 
history  of  the  Baptists. 

THE  BAPTIST  HEADQUARTERS 

Recently  the  Union  has  completed  its  commodious 
Church  House,  which  is  situated  in  the  heart  of  London, 
on  Southampton  Row  near  High  Holborn  Street  Here  are 
denominational  headquarters,  the  offices  of  secretaries  and 
editors,  committee  rooms,  an  assembly  room,  etc.  On  the 
ground  floor  is  the  bookstore,  and  on  the  second  floor  is 
the  library. 

OFFICERS  OF  THE  UNION 

The  president  of  the  Baptist  Union  is  elected  annually, 
the  choice  falling  upon  some  man  of  national  reputation, 
either  some  celebrated  divine  or  some  distinguished  member 
of  Parliament.  The  general  secretary  of  the  Union  is  Rev. 
J.  H.  Shakespeare,  one  of  the  very  brightest  and  most 
aggressive  of  English  Baptists. 

GENERAL  AND   PARTICULAR   BAPTISTS   UNITED 

In  describing  the  Baptist  Union  and  its  relation  to  the 
denomination,  a  paragraph  ought  to  be  devoted  to  the 
General  and  the  Particular  Baptists.  Time  was  when  these 
two  parties  were  in  bitter  and  violent  antagonism.  The 
General  had  drifted  into  Unitarianism  and  the  Particular 
into  hyper-Calvinism,  and  each  hated  the  other  venomously. 
Daniel  Taylor  saved  the  General  Baptists  by  sifting  out  the 
Unitarians  and  forming  the  "New  Connection;"  and 
Andrew  Fuller  saved  the  Particular  Baptists  by  toning 
down  and  softening  their  hyper-Calvinism.  Nevertheless, 
many  decades  passed  before  the  two  could  coalesce. 


General  and  Particular  Baptists  United  373 

The  Particulars  founded  their  Foreign  Missionary- 
Society  under  Carey  in  1792.  After  a  time  the  Generals 
were  moved  to  do  foreign  work.  They  offered  to  turn  in 
and  assist  the  older  society,  but  the  Particulars  would  not 
harbor  them.  So,  in  1816,  they  organized  their  own  inde- 
pendent society.  Then  for  seventy-five  years,  the  two 
societies  were  operating  in  the  foreign  field  separately  and 
independently.  By  that  time  the  theological  differences  had 
so  diminished,  and  the  sentiment  in  favor  of  union  had  so 
increased,  that  each  society  was  prepared  for  amalgama- 
tion. The  actual  union  was  brought  about  in  1891,  and 
since  that  date  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  has  been  the 
one  society  of  both  General  and  Particular  Baptists. 

In  much  the  same  way  the  two  parties  came  together 
in  the  Baptist  Union.  In  1864  Dr.  Underbill  set  forth  to 
the  Baptist  Union  the  doctrinal  positions  of  the  General 
Baptists,  i.  e.,  of  the  Dan  Taylor  New  Connection  wing  of 
the  General  Baptists.  The  extreme  shades  of  Arminianism 
and  of  Calvinism  had  so  far  faded  that  the  brethren  could 
not  discover  that  the  two  sorts  of  Baptists  differed  in  any 
important  particulars.  The  one  sort  had  ceased  to  be  Uni- 
tarian and  the  other  sort  had  ceased  to  be  hyper-Calvinistic, 
and  both  sorts  seemed  to  be  equally  evangelical.  The  result 
was  that,  in  the  course  of  time,  the  two  streams  merged  into 
one,  and  today  in  the  Baptist  Union  the  membership  is  com- 
posed of  both  kinds,  the  old  terms  "General"  and  "Par- 
ticular" being  now  seldom  heard,  and  the  old  distinction 
being  wholly  lost.  The  Union  consists  of  members  who  are 
simply  Christian  and  orthodox. 

There  still  remains  an  insignificant  sect  of  General  Bap- 
tists, Unitarian  in  sentiment,  and  an  insignificant  sect  of 
Particular  Baptists  of  extreme  Calvinistic  proclivities,  but 
in  numbers  and  power  they  have  dwindled  out  of  notice  and 


374  Baptisls  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

account.  The  most  famous  and  honored  Baptist  in  all 
England — Dr.  Clifford — was  once  a  General  Baptist,  but 
today  he  is  the  foremost  leader  in  the  London  Baptist  Asso- 
ciation, the  Baptist  Union,  and  the  Baptist  Missionary 
Society.  The  actual,  formal,  organic  coalescing  of  the  two 
bodies  in  the  Baptist  Union  occurred  in  1891. 

COLLEGES 

There  are  seven  Baptist  colleges  that  hold  membership 
in  the  Baptist  Union.  These  cannot  appropriately  be  called 
colleges  in  our  use  of  that  word.  They  are  rather  theological 
training  schools.  They  are,  most  of  them,  small  and  poorly 
equipped.  Many  of  our  Baptist  ministers  gained  their  classi- 
cal education  in  the  English  and  Scotch  universities  and 
in  various  high-grade  secular  schools.  In  1905  the  condition 
of  the  seven  Baptist  colleges  was  as  follows : 

1.  Bristol. — Founded  in  1680;  last  year's  income,  $10,- 
000;  number  of  students,  24.  These  students  get  their 
classical,  mathematical,  and  scientific  training  in  Western 
College. 

2.  Midland. — Founded  in  1797;  last  year's  income, 
$4,000;  number  of  students,  13.  These  students  get  their 
classical,  mathematical,  and  literary  training  in  Nottingham 
University  College. 

3.  Rawdon. — Founded  in  1804;  last  year's  income, 
$8,000;  number  of  students,  20. 

4.  Regent's  Park. — Founded  in  18 10;  last  year's  in- 
come, $20,000;  number  of  students,  25. 

5.  Manchester. — Founded  in  1866;  last  year's  income, 
$10,000;  number  of  students,  20. 

6.  Cardiff. — Founded  in  1807;  last  year's  income, 
$4,500;  number  of  students,  26. 

7.  Bangor. — Founded    in     1862;    last    year's    income 


The  Down-Grade  Controversy  375 

$4,500;  number  of  students,  21.     These  students  get  their 
collegiate  training  at  University  College. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  our  seven  Baptist  colleges  have 
an  income  of  about  $60,000  a  year,  and  that  in  them  about 
150  students  are  being  trained  for  the  ministry.  There  is 
one  other  college  which  has  no  connection  with  the  Baptist 
Union.  When  Spurgeon  withdrew  from  the  Union  he  took 
his  Pastor's  College  with  him.  This  college  was  founded 
in  1856.  Last  year's  income  was  $15,000,  and  the  number 
of  students  is  55. 

THE  DOWN-GRADE  CONTROVERSY 

This  is  the  proper  place  in  which  to  speak  of  Mr.  Spur- 
geon's  controversy  with  his  Baptist  brethren,  and  of  his 
withdrawal  from  the  denominational  organizations.  It  is 
known  as  the  down-grade  controversy.  Spurgeon  was  a 
Puritan  in  his  theology.  He  has  been  called  "the  last  of 
the  Puritans."  He  most  sincerely  believed  that  the  old- 
time  Puritan  dogmas  were  the  very  truth  of  God.  When, 
therefore,  his  fellow-ministers  began  to  entertain  more 
modern  ideas,  he  antagonized  these  ideas  with  all  his  might. 
When  the  doctrine  of  Evolution  began  to  find  acceptance, 
he  looked  upon  it  as  tantamount  to  atheism.  When  scholars 
began  to  give  countenance  to  the  historical  and  literary  criti- 
cism of  the  Bible,  he  felt  that  such  a  handling  of  the  Word 
of  God  was  sacrilegious.  Any  departure  from  the  doctrine 
of  the  person  of  Christ,  as  set  forth  in  the  old  creeds,  led 
straight  to  Unitarianism.  He  set  himself  with  all  his  power 
against  all  such  innovations.  There  appeared  a  series  of 
articles  in  the  Szvord  and  Trowel  in  which  Baptist  ministers 
were  accused  of  declension  from  the  orthodox  faith.  All  this 
engendered  strife  and  bitterness.    He  took  the  matter  to  the 


376  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

London  Baptist  Association  and  insisted  that  the  constitu- 
tion should  be  so  changed  as  to  express  a  stiff  orthodox 
creed.  His  brethren  tried  to  persuade  him  out  of  the 
notion.  When  they  could  not  in  conscience  yield,  he  with- 
drew from  the  Association. 

He  took  the  matter  to  the  Baptist  Union.  He  had 
always  been  its  staunch  and  ready  helper,  but  now  he  in- 
sisted that  an  authoritative  creed  should  take  the  place  of 
the  old  constitution.  Many  of  his  friends  who  were  in  full 
sympathy  with  his  theological  views  did  not  believe  that  a 
test  of  orthodoxy,  inserted  in  the  constitution,  would  remedy 
the  evil;  nor  did  they  feel  justified  in  following  Spurgeon 
in  withdrawal.  The  officers  of  the  Union  tried  to  com- 
promise with  him  and  sent  deputations  and  offered 
resolutions.  Nothing  could  move  the  orthodox  Puritan.  He 
carried  out  his  purpose  of  severance  from  all  denominational 
organizations.  Since  then  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle  has 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  London  Association,  the  Union, 
or  the  Missionary  Society.  None  of  these  bodies  would  tie 
up  their  members  to  Spurgeon's  Puritan  creed,  and  so  he  cut 
loose  from  them  all.  The  Baptist  Union  loved  Mr.  Spur- 
geon and  were  willing  to  go  all  reasonable  lengths  to  please 
him,  but  he  was  asking  more  than  intelligence  and  con- 
science could  concede.  They  passed  a  resolution  justify- 
ing their  action,  and  vindicating  those  men  whom  Spurgeon 
had  aspersed.  Many  of  the  pastors  who  had  been  educated 
in  Spurgeon's  college  followed  their  leader,  but  many  of 
them,  on  the  other  hand,  refused  to  deprive  the  Baptist 
ministry  of  its  liberty.  Spurgeon's  own  brother  stood  with 
the  Union,  and  gradually  those  who  went  out  are  returning. 
It  is  believed  by  the  more  hopeful  that  the  time  is  not  very 
far  distant  when  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle  will  be  again 
in  fellowship. 


World  Congress  and  Twentieth-Century  Fund        2>1'1 

THREE  RECENT  NOTABLE  UNDERTAKINGS  BY  THE  BAPTIST 

UNION 

From  what  has  already  been  said,  it  is  obvious  enough 
that  the  Baptist  Union  is  a  Hve  institution.  There  are 
three  notable  undertakings  with  which  the  Union  has  just 
recently  been  connected  which  are  worthy  of  mention. 

First,  the  placing  of  a  bronze  statue  of  Mr.  Spurgeon 
in  the  entrance  hall  of  the  Church  House.  This  was  a 
specially  worthy  and  gracious  act,  when  we  remember  that 
Mr.  Spurgeon  withdrew  from  the  Union  and  compelled 
that  body  to  vindicate  itself  and  to  censure  his  illiberal 
spirit  and  conduct.  While  the  Baptist  Union  was  adorning 
its  new  church  house  with  statues  and  pictures,  and  medal- 
lions and  panels,  giving  honor  to  John  Bunyan,  Robert 
Hall,  and  other  saints  and  heroes,  it  reserved  the  best  place 
for  a  statue  of  Charles  Spurgeon.  It  was  unveiled  at  Exeter 
Hall,  in  the  midst  of  the  meetings  of  the  Baptist  Congress, 
on  July  17,  1905.  The  address  was  delivered  by  Dr. 
MacLaren  in  the  presence  of  Baptist  ministers  and  dele- 
gates from  almost  every  country  in  the  world. 

The  second  recent  achievement  of  the  Baptist  Union 
was  the  Baptist  World  Congress,  July  11-19,  1905. 
The  Union  was  aided  by  a  committee  from  the  Baptist 
Missionary  Society,  but  it  itself  assumed  the  responsibility 
of  defraying  the  heavy  expenses  of  providing  entertain- 
ment for  the  delegates,  of  arranging  the  programme,  and 
of  publishing  the  proceedings.  As  the  outcome  of  the  con- 
gress, a  Baptist  World  Alliance  was  formed  of  which  Dr. 
Clifford  is  president,  and  Dr.  Shakespeare  chief  secretary 
— both  Baptist  Union  men. 

The  third  recent  achievement  of  the  Union  was  the 
raising  of  what  is  known  as  the  Baptist  Union  Twentieth- 


378  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

Century  Fund.  More  than  the  amount  asked  for  was 
secured.  The  Union  asked  the  Baptists  of  the  British  Isles 
to  give  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  dollars  (£250,000)  to  be 
expended  as  follows:  $625,000  for  church  extension  and 
evangelization  in  destitute  districts;  $150,000  for  the 
assistance  of  the  weaker  churches;  $150,000  for  annuities 
for  aged  ministers  and  ministers'  widows;  $30,000  for 
scholarships  open  to  students  in  Baptist  colleges;  $125,000 
for  educational  purposes;  $170,000  for  the  erection  in  Lon- 
don of  a  Baptist  church  house,  to  be  the  home  of  the  Baptist 
Union.  This  magnificent  scheme  was  carried  to  a  success- 
ful accomplishment,  and  more  money  was  secured  than  was 
asked  for.  Extra  contributions  enabled  the  Union  to  erect 
a  church  house  costing  $250,000. 

DOCTRINE  AND   POLITY 

Our  review  of  the  present  status  of  our  Baptist  cousins 
across  the  sea  would  not  be  complete  without  a  brief  state- 
ment of  their  belief  in  doctrine  and  their  practice  in  polity. 

Here  in  America  our  two  great  confessions  are  the 
Philadelphia  and  the  New  Hampshire — both  strongly  Cal- 
vinistic.  It  cannot  be  denied,  however,  that  our  Baptist 
people  generally  (especially  in  the  North)  have  adopted  a 
much  more  liberal  theology.  The  new  learning  has  been 
frankly  accepted  by  many  of  our  most  influential  leaders. 
There  is  a  strong  and  increasing  school  of  thought  that 
frankly  accepts  evolution,  the  higher  criticism,  and  the 
recent  teachings  in  psychology  and  philosophy.  They  are 
out  of  conceit  also  with  the  theology  that  was  taught  in  our 
seminaries  thirty  years  ago.  It  is  perfectly  safe  to  say  that 
no  books  on  theology  will  ever  again  be  issued  like  those 
of  Hodge,   Shedd,  Dodge,   Northrup,   Pendleton,   Strong, 


Doctrine  and  Polity  379 

Hovey,  Boyce,  and  old-time  Calvinists  of  that  school.  That 
day  has  passed  by  forever. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  in  doctrine  the  British  Bap- 
tists pretty  closely  resemble  their  American  cousins.  There 
are  extreme  conservatives  who  follow  in  the  wake  of  Spur- 
geon,  there  are  radicals  who  are  too  far  in  advance  of  their 
brethren,  and  there  are  sober,  progressive  men  who  are  not 
.afraid  of  truth  and  whose  minds  are  open  to  the  light.  It 
was  men  of  this  type  who  resisted  Spurgeon  and  who  re- 
fused to  shackle  the  Baptist  Union  with  a  cast-iron  creed. 

In  the  matter  of  polity,  the  case  is  somewhat  different. 
American  Baptists,  in  both  North  and  South,  insist  upon 
immersion.  Theoretically,  likewise,  as  a  denomination,  they 
insist  upon  restricted  communion.  A  silent  and  great 
change,  however,  has  taken  place,  especially  in  the  North. 
A  formal  invitation  to  the  Supper,  barring  out  non-Baptists, 
has  ceased  to  be  extended.  Many  pastors  are  avowedly  open 
communionists,  and  many  more  are  in  quiet  sympathy  with 
that  position.  The  question  no  longer  agitates  northern 
Baptists,    It  is  a  dead  issue. 

What  is  the  sentiment  of  the  British  Baptists  on  these 
points?  Over  there  things  are  somewhat  mixed.  In  the 
course  of  history  all  sorts  of  ideas  have  prevailed.  Some 
strong  leaders  in  former  times  were  restricted  communion- 
ists, and  some,  equally  strong,  were  open.  Bunyan  was 
open,  and  so  was  Robert  Hall,  and  so  was  Charles  Spur- 
geon. On  the  whole,  the  English  Baptists  have  been  almost 
as  stoutly  open  as  the  American  Baptists  have  been  re- 
stricted. In  Wales  the  case  has  been  somewhat  different. 
Formerly  the  Welsh  were  strict,  but  latterly  they,  too,  are 
becoming  open.  There  still  exist  restricted-communion 
Baptist  churches,  both  in  Wales  and  England,  but  they  are 
both  weak  and  decreasing. 


380  Baptists  in  Great  Bntain  and  Ireland, 

But  how  is  it  with  the  other  ordinance?  Over  here  we 
are  stoutly  and  strictly  immersionists ;  but  over  there,  from 
open  communion  the  English  Baptists  are  passing  to  open 
baptism.  There  are  very  many  churches  in  which  the  mat- 
ter of  baptism  is  left  entirely  to  the  individual.  If  he  is 
satisfied  with  his  sprinkling  in  babyhood,  the  church  ad- 
mits him  to  membership  without  further  ado. 

This  open  baptism  is  certainly  on  the  increase,  and  the 
day  seems  to  be  not  far  distant  when  practically  all  of  our 
English  churches  will  occupy  this  position.  Let  me  read  a 
few  lines  from  a  newspaper  report  of  the  Baptist  World 
Congress  (July,  1905)  : 

Perhaps  the  most  astonishing  Baptist  phenomenon  in  Great  Brit- 
ain is  the  "mixed"  church.  Among  the  Free  Baptists  of  this 
country,  at  one  time  at  least,  some  of  the  churches  admitted  unim- 
mersed  persons  to  "watch  and  care"  membership.  Those  thus 
received  were  not  given  the  privilege  of  voting  or  holding  office, 
and  the  membership  was  more  nominal  than  real.  In  the  larger  body 
of  American  Baptists  such  a  thing  as  admitting  to  church  member- 
ship one  who  has  not  been  immersed  is  unheard  of.  In  England, 
and  especially  in  London,  many  of  the  Baptist  churches  are  made  up  of 
immersed  and  unimmersed  people,  and  English  Baptists  have  unim- 
mersed  members.  No  distinction  is  made  between  the  two  classes, 
so  far  as  standing  and  privileges  are  concerned.  One  would  naturally 
assume  that  under  such  conditions  the  pastor  would  not  feel  free  to 
emphasize  Baptist  beliefs  lest  a  part  of  his  constituency  should  feel 
affronted.  The  assumption  does  not  seem  to  be  warranted  by  the 
facts.  Rev.  F.  B.  Meyer  is  pastor  of  a  mixed  church  which  does  not 
even  bear  the  name  Baptist,  and  yet,  no  man  who  appeared  before  the 
congress  spoke  out  more  constantly  and  uncompromisingly  for  funda- 
mental Baptist  beliefs  than  did  Mr.  Meyer.  Taken  as  a  whole,  it 
seems  quite  certain  that  British  Baptists  lay  quite  as  much  stress  upon 
historic  Baptist  principles  as  we  do,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  their 
lack  of  consistency. 

All  sorts  and  conditions  of  Baptists  are  found  there  as  here,  and 
some   varieties   are    found   on   English   soil   that   have   not   yet   been 


Dissenters  Outnumber  the  Anglicans  381 

transplanted.  For  example,  in  the  discussion  concerning  doctrinal 
statement  carried  on  in  the  committee  appointed  to  formulate  a  con- 
stitution, the  fact  was  brought  out  that  in  England  there  are  Uni- 
tarian Baptist  churches.  It  is  not  uncommon  in  America  for  one 
Baptist  to  charge  another  with  being  Unitarian  in  sentiment,  but,  so 
far  as  we  know,  we  have  no  Unitarian  Baptist  churches.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  say  that  churches  of  this  kind  are  not  recognized  by  the 
Baptist  Union  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

The  free  churches  in  England  are  those  that  have  no 
connection  with  the  state,  and  in  this  they  are  distinguished 
from  the  EstabHshed  Church  which  is  a  department  of  the 
state  and  owned  and  controlled  by  it. 

The  Baptist  denomination  is,  therefore,  one  of  the  free 
churches.  These  free  churches  (Baptist,  Presbyterian,  In- 
dependent, Methodist,  etc.)  have  formed  themselves  into 
what  they  call  the  "National  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free 
Churches."  These  Dissenters  or  Non-conformists  now  out- 
number the  Established  Church.  The  statistics  are  as  fol- 
lows: In  1700  the  Non-conformists  were  to  the  Church  of 
England  as  i  to  22;  in  1800,  as  i  to  8;  in  1900  as  i  to  i. 
Today  the  Dissenters  outnumber  the  Anglicans  in  every 
respect.  The  Anglicans  still  greatly  outclass  them  in  wealth 
and  social  standing,  but  not  in  moral  influence.  Parliament 
is  forced  to  take  account  of  the  "Non-conformist  con- 
science."   No  one  ever  heard  of  the  "Anglican  conscience." 

The  statistics  for  1902  were  as  follows :  Anglican  com- 
municants, 1,974,629;  Sunday-school  teachers,  203,902; 
Sunday-school  scholars,  2,841,862;  church  sittings, 
7,000,375.  Free-church  communicants,  1,946,959;  Sunday- 
school  teachers,  384,175  ;  Sunday-school  scholars,  3,276,895  ; 
church  sittings,  8,140,767.  These  statistics  show  that  the 
Anglicans  have  28,000  more  communicants,  but  this  differ- 


382  Baptists  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

ence  has  already  disappeared;  and  no  one  supposes  that,  in 
vital  godliness,  Anglicans  equal  Dissenters.  The  most 
prominent  and  influential  Anglicans  are  really  Papists,  given 
up  to  sacerdotalism,  sacramentarianism,  and  ritualism. 


XV 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON 
EDUCATION 


XV 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  CHRISTIANITY  UPON 
EDUCATION  1 

Prevailing  ideas  determine  education.  If  in  China  2,400 
years  ago  Confucius  gave  to  his  people  a  perfect  scheme  of 
social  and  political  life,  then  nothing  remains  but  to  devise 
an  educational  system  which  shall  perpetuate  the  society 
and  government  his  wisdom  disclosed.  If  in  India  the  laws 
of  Manu  divide  society  into  separate  and  fixed  orders  whose 
regulations  must  be  punctiliously  observed  from  the  first 
breath  of  life  to  the  last  gasp  of  death,  then  obviously  the 
chief  function  of  education  is  to  train  the  pupil  in  the  duties 
of  that  particular  caste  to  which  by  heredity  he  belongs.  If 
in  Persia  the  religion  of  Zoroaster  controls  the  public  and 
private  life  of  her  inhabitants,  then  for  prince  and  people 
alike  the  Magi  will  provide  an  education  fitted  to  fortify 
and  reinforce  existing  institutions.  If  in  Greece  the  all- 
dominating  passion  of  the  Spartans  is  to  maintain  their 
supremacy  as  the  ruling  class  over  the  hostile  and  more 
numerous  freemen  and  serfs,  then  an  education  chiefly 
physical  and  military  must  turn  Sparta  into  a  training 
camp,  and  render  her  soldier-citizens  hardy,  obedient,  and 
brave,  quick,  aggressive,  and  strong.  If  in  Greece  the  Athen- 
ians conceive  a  beautiful  mind  in  a  beautiful  body,  the 
harmonious  union  of  physical  and  intellectual  culture,  thus 
evolving,  on  its  aesthetic  side,  the  most  perfect  idea  and 
form  of  civilization  in  the  ancient  world,  so,  too,  growing 

^  President's  annual  address  before  the  American  Baptist  Education 
Society,   Norfolk,  Va.,   May   5,   1898. 

38s 


386  Influence  of  Christianity  Upon  Education 

directly  out  of  this  they  create  a  system  of  education  in- 
tended and  adapted  to  reaHze  this  their  ideal  of  human 
hfe.  If  in  Rome  nature  and  circumstance  evolve  a  nation 
sturdy  in  character,  eager  for  conquest,  gifted  in  statecraft, 
strong  in  utilities,  then  in  the  education  of  such  a  people 
emphasis  will  be  laid  on  military  training,  political  science, 
forensic  eloquence,  the  mechanical  arts. 

Thus  in  every  instance  education  is  purposely  bent  to 
the  prevailing  idea — be  that  idea  the  sacredness  of  tradition, 
the  fixedness  of  caste,  the  exaltation  of  priests,  the  neces- 
sity of  self-preservation,  the  deification  of  beauty,  the 
supremacy  of  the  state.  Something  other  than  education 
is  first  conceived  and  then  by  means  of  education  this  some- 
thing other  is  sought  to  be  attained.  Inquire  first,  there- 
fore, after  the  civilization  of  a  people,  the  nature  of  their 
religion,  their  theory  of  society,  their  conception  of  the 
state,  their  fundamental  and  regulative  ideas  in  the  house- 
hold, the  market-place,  the  senate  chamber,  the  field,  and 
the  temple.  Education  is  simply  the  instrumentality  through 
which  is  sought  the  realization  of  these  ideas.  Hence  it 
follows  that  the  introduction  of  new  ideas  must  have  its 
immediate  and  lasting  effect  on  the  prevailing  educational 
system. 

CHRISTIAN  IDEAS  AND  FORCES 

Now  it  is  the  most  open  and  patent  of  facts  that  Chris- 
tianity introduced  into  our  world  ideas  and  forces  of  super- 
lative moment.  Familiarity  dulls  our  impression  of  their 
worth  and  glory.  Christianity  is  itself  a  system  of  thought 
and  the  greatest  mental  and  moral  power  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  and  hence  vitally  relates  itself  to  human  progress 
and  culture  through  all  time.  When  Christ  appeared  there 
dawned  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  our  globe.     With  his 


Christian  Ideas  and  Forces  387 

coming  the  world  was  flooded  with  new  thought;  there 
entered  a  new  regenerative  force  and  quickening  spirit  to 
revive  the  race;  and  new  truth  from  higher  realms  started 
humanity  on  a  fresh  career  of  intellectual  and  spiritual 
advancement.  Christ  is  himself  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the 
life;  the  Redeemer  and  educator  of  mankind,  whose  task 
it  has  been  since  his  appearing  to  appropriate  and  realize 
his  teachings.  The  truths  concerning  God  and  man  he  dis- 
closed to  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  race  are  destined  to  be  in 
the  process  of  time  the  ascendent  and  controlling  truths  not 
less  in  the  domain  of  education  than  in  the  realms  of  society, 
government,  philosophy,  and  religion. 

The  true  idea  of  God  is  the  most  suggestive,  inspiring, 
and  fruitful  that  can  enter  the  mind  of  man,  and  it  is  to 
Christ  that  we  owe  that  disclosure  of  his  being  and  character, 
which  is  destined  to  revolutionize  the  thinking  and  living 
of  the  race.  He  it  is  who  reveals  the  God  of  the  universe 
as  one  and  free  and  good;  the  Father  and  Savior  of  men. 
He  it  is  who  gives  insight  and  uplift  to  intellect,  conscience, 
ajfifection,  and  will,  by  revealing  a  personal  intelligence  who 
presides  over  this  creation,  and  from  whom  "order  and  life, 
force  and  love,  incessantly  proceed."  Chance  and  caprice 
and  fate  are  excluded.  We  dwell  in  a  cosmos,  a  system  of 
law,  harmony,  and  truth.  History  and  science  and  ethics 
are  thus  made  possible.  The  educational  value  of  such  an 
idea  is  simply  incalculable. 

Scarcely  less  quickening  and  influential  is  Christ's  revela- 
tion of  man,  his  place  and  worth  and  destiny.  Man  is  a 
wholly  different  being  since  our  Lord  appeared.  Each  man 
is  a  thousand  fold  greater  than  the  old  world  conceived 
him.  He  has  a  dignity  and  prospect  immeasurably  more 
sacred  and  glorious  than  the  ancients  ever  dreamed. 
Through  him,  "who  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light," 


388  Influence  of  Christianity  Upon  Education 

we  learn  what  it  means  that  he  is  a  being  created  in  the 
likeness  of  God,  and  hence  capable  of  knowing  and  loving 
him;  a  being  in  organic  relationship  to  the  infinite  and 
eternal  Spirit;  a  being  to  whom  the  Heavenly  Father  has 
come  with  revelations  of  truth,  duty,  and  love;  a  being 
whose  nature  the  Son  of  God  assumed,  for  whose  redemp- 
tion the  Son  of  God  expired ;  a  being  whose  intellect  is  great 
enough  to  discern  the  meaning  of  the  manger  and  the  cross, 
whose  conscience  is  sensitive  enough  to  respond  to  their 
transcendent  claims,  and  whose  affections  are  divine  enough 
to  embrace  their  life-conveying  fulness;  a  being  whose 
rational  and  moral  faculties  even  divine  omnipotence  will 
never  coerce,  the  realm  of  whose  personal  freedom  not  even 
heavenly  violence  will  ever  invade;  a  being  destined  to  a 
conscious,  personal  future  life  whose  character  his  own 
volition  has  predetermined,  and  a  life  which  shall  never  end. 
These  wholly  new  conceptions  of  man  as  related  to  the 
God  who  made  him,  as  the  crown  and  goal  of  the  visible 
creation,  as  the  favored  child  for  whom  the  worlds  were 
framed,  for  whom  the  beneficent  processes  of  nature  are 
carried  on,  for  whom  the  orderly  forms  of  society  and  gov- 
ernment are  instituted,  for  whom  the  remedial  work  of 
Christ  was  introduced,  and  for  whom  the  felicities  of  the 
celestial  world  are  made  ready,  these  new  views  of  the 
divine,  human  kinship  in  Christ,  the  God-man,  have  so 
exalted  the  sense  of  the  divine  personality  and  so  deepened 
and  sanctified  the  sense  of  the  human  personality  as  that 
since  that  day  of  revelation  the  currents  of  the  world's 
history  have  run  in  new  channels.  Rightly  are  events  in 
human  chronicles  dated  b.  c.  and  a.  d.,  for  precisely  at 
that  dividing  line  have  we  the  revelation  of  a  new  theophany 
and  theodicy  and  theocracy,  which  in  turn  have  become  the 
fruitful  source  and  beginning  of  the  new  philosophies,  and 


Fourfold  Influence  of  Christianity  389 

philanthropies,  and  democracies  which  since  that  day  have 
brightened  and  blessed  the  world. 

Prevailing  ideas  determine  education.  The  introduction 
of  new  ideas  works  corresponding  changes.  The  new  ideas 
brought  by  Christianity  are  of  the  most  radical  and  revolu- 
tionary sort.  Jesus  Christ  in  founding  a  new  religion  neces- 
sarily laid  the  foundations  of  a  new  education.  Somewhat 
to  expand  and  illustrate  this  truth  is  the  task  assigned  me. 

A   FOURFOLD   INFLUENCE 

I  wish  to  indicate  in  four  particulars,  under  four  heads, 
the  influence  of  Christianity  upon  education. 

First,  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  measure  of 
education,  i.  e.,  the  amount  or  quantity  of  it.  Since  Christ 
appeared  there  has  been  accumulating  an  educational  fund 
or  endowment,  a  capital  stock,  so  to  speak,  represented  by 
learning  in  living  men  and  dead  books,  by  schools  and 
libraries,  by  museums  and  galleries,  by  architecture,  sculp- 
ture, and  painting,  by  the  treasured  stories  of  experience, 
thought,  and  wisdom  wherever  found  and  in  whatever  form. 
The  question  is,  what  influence  has  Christianity  had  in  pro- 
viding this  educational  outfit  with  which  the  world  is  fur- 
nished? How  much  education  is  there,  and  how  much  does 
it  owe  to  Christianity  ? 

Secondly,  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  matter 
of  education,  i.  e.,  on  the  material  or  staple  of  it.  Since 
Christ  appeared  what  has  been  the  substance  or  content  of 
education?  What  kinds  of  knowledge  have  been  appre- 
ciated and  inculcated?  What  branches  have  been  taught, 
studies  pursued,  topics  discussed,  fields  explored,  curricula 
adopted,  and  what  influence  all  along  has  Christianity  had 
in  fixing  and  changing  the  capital  articles  in  the  educational 
creed?  What  has  been  deemed  essential  in  education,  and 
what  part  has  Christianity  had  in  making  that  judgment? 


390  Influence  of  Christianity  Upon  Education 

Thirdly,  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  method 
of  education,  i.  e.,  on  the  process  or  way  of  it.  Since  Christ 
appeared,  God,  mind,  and  the  world  are  better  known;  the 
faculties  and  affections  of  the  human  soul  are  better  under- 
stood ;  educators  have  learned  better  along  what  avenues  to 
approach  the  intellect  and  by  what  ways  or  paths  to  lead 
out  its  powers.  The  question  is,  has  Christianity  aided  in 
the  discovery  of  the  national  and  rational  order  of  intel- 
lectual inquiry,  instruction,  and  discipline?  How  shall  we 
begin  and  conduct  the  educational  process,  and  what  part 
has  Christianity  had  in  determining  this  mode  of  procedure? 

Fourthly,  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  motive 
in  education,  i.  e.,  on  the  intent  of  it  and  the  inducement  to 
it.  Why  is  this  vast  and  expensive  educational  undertaking 
kept  up?  Why  do  merchants  give  it  their  money,  and 
teachers  their  brains,  and  students  their  days  of  youth? 
What  incentive  moves  them  to  these  expenditures?  What 
design  is  had  in  view  ?  What  end  is  aimed  at  ?  What  good 
is  looked  for?  To  what  extent  has  Christianity  furnished 
the  underlying  and  determining  motive  in  it  all  ? 

The  influence  of  Christianity  on  education  cannot  be  ade- 
quately presented  without  discussing  that  influence  as  it  is 
seen  in  the  measure,  the  matter,  the  method,  and  the  motive 
of  education.  In  the  time  allotted  to  me,  I  can  only  par- 
tially present  the  first  of  these  four. 

Let  me  ask  you,  then,  in  the  few  moments  at  our  dis- 
posal, to  narrow  your  thought  to  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tianity on  the  measure  of  education. 

I.       PRIOR  TO  THE  REFORMATION 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  primary,  second- 
ary, and  university  schools,  under  imperial  patronage, 
amply  supplied  the  scholastic  needs  of  Roman  youth.     In 


Schools  Be j ore  the  Rejormation  391 

the  Attgustinian  Age  the  educational  ideas  of  Greece  and 
Rome  had  blended,  and  in  every  part  of  the  empire  Romano- 
Hellenic  culture  was  easily  accessible.  While  in  the  larger 
cities  the  most  advanced  studies  could  be  pursued,  in  the 
smaller  towns  the  elementary  branches  were  intrusted  to 
"masters  who  were  elected  by  the  magistrates  and  main- 
tained at  the  public  expense." 

Of  the  existing  educational  facilities  Christians  availed 
themselves,  so  far  as  circumstances  would  allow.  In  the 
first,  second,  and  third  centuries  Roman  morals  were  at  a 
low  ebb  and  Christianity  was  a  proscribed  religion.  People 
and  rulers  were  in  no  wise  elevated  by  their  old  faith,  and 
were  resorting  to  the  utmost  measures  of  cruelty  to  destroy 
the  new.  Living  thus  in  the  midst  of  heathen  corruption 
and  under  the  horrors  of  heathen  persecution  it  was  only 
natural  that  Christian  parents  should  withdraw  their  chil- 
dren as  much  as  possible  from  the  debasing  associations  of 
pagan  society  and  in  the  privacy  and  sanctity  of  home  give 
them  such  mental  training  as  their  own  meager  attainments 
would  allow,  and  such  moral  training  as  they  were  better 
fitted  to  impart.  For  the  education  which  public  worship 
furnished  in  sermon,  Scripture,  prayer,  and  song,  household 
instruction  gave  the  needed  preparation. 

Near  the  close  of  the  second  century  catechetical  schools 
sprang  up  at  various  Christian  centers — the  most  noted  and 
advanced  at  Alexandria — specially  designed  to  fit  candidates 
for  baptism  and  church  membership.  Enrolled  in  these 
schools  were  adults  as  well  as  youth,  and  sometimes  men  of 
learning  and  philosophical  reflection,  and  hence  a  higher 
range  of  studies  was  necessitated  to  answer  objections,  and 
to  vindicate  the  ethical  and  rational  grounds  on  which  the 
new  religion  rested.  Salaries,  schoolhouses,  and  textbooks 
were  unknown. 


392  Influence  of  Christianity  Upon  Education 

With  the  opening  of  the  fourth  century  there  began  the 
complete  reversal  of  the  relations  of  the  Christian  and 
heathen  world — Constantine  on  the  throne ;  church  and  state 
united;  the  heathen  cultus  under  ban;  the  Graeco-Roman 
religion  going  to  the  wall.  In  the  struggle  between  the  old 
and  the  new  the  old  was  destined  to  pass  away.  In  the 
midst  of  the  disintegration  of  ancient  morals  and  philoso- 
phies the  new  formative  forces  of  Christianity  were  slowly 
winning  their  way.  The  inspiring  idea  and  aim  of  the  new 
religion  and  the  new  philosophy  of  life  which  that 
religion  brought  to  mankind  were  gradually  supplanting  the 
decaying  idea  and  philosophy  of  Greece  and  Rome.  No- 
where was  the  advancing  thought  more  marked  than  in  the 
field  of  education.  For  a  hundred  years  before  the  acces- 
sion of  Constantine  the  Christian  church  had  been  exert- 
ing a  distinct  influence  in  this  domain ;  and  a  hundred  years 
later  her  increasing  power  gave  her  the  complete  ascendency. 
At  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  the  control  of  Christianity 
over  the  schools  was  everywhere  triumphant.  The  old 
forms  of  heathen  education  still  survived  in  some  quarters, 
but  the  spirit  had  fled  and  the  forms  themselves  soon  disap- 
peared. Greek  and  Roman  culture  could  no  longer  meet 
"either  the  spiritual  or  the  material  wants  of  man."  Chris- 
tianity would  take  up  what  was  of  enduring  worth,  and  the 
rest  must  forever  perish. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  we  have  always 
to  reckon  with  the  Christian  church  when  education  is  under 
discussion.  The  Romano-Hellenic  schools  have  passed 
away  and  Christian  schools  have  come  in  to  take  their  place. 
The  state  religion  has  become  the  foster-mother  of  educa- 
tion. 

CATHEDRAL  SCHOOLS 

First  in  order  are  the  cathedral  schools.  Episcopacy 
was  unknown  in  the  Apostolic  Age.    "Bishop"  and  "presby- 


Cathedral  and  Monastic  Schools  393 

ter"  were  synonymous  and  interchangeable  terms.  In  each 
local  church  was  usually  a  plurality  of  elders.  The  title 
"bishop,"  originally  common  to  all,  came  at  length  to  be 
appropriated  to  the  chief  among  them. 

Still  later  the  bishop  of  a  single  church  came  to  be  the 
bishop  of  neighboring  churches  as  well,  and  the  local 
episcopate  grew  into  diocesan  episcopacy.  The  cathedral 
church  was  located  at  the  episcopal  seat,  where,  as  a  part  of 
the  ecclesiastical  machinery,  the  bishop  established  a  Chris- 
tian school,  which  at  first  existed  side  by  side  with  the 
imperial  school,  but  at  a  later  period  superseded  it.  The 
priests  connected  with  the  cathedral  were  organized  into  a 
guild  of  teachers  upon  whom  devolved  the  instruction  of 
candidates  for  church  membership  and  holy  orders.  As 
early  as  a.  d.  181,  Pantaenus  founded  the  celebrated  school 
at  Alexandria  of  which  Origen  became  the  most  famous 
teacher;  and  in  course  of  time  schools  with  like  design 
sprang  up  all  over  the  Roman  Empire.  As  cathedral  schools 
perfected  their  organization  and  extended  their  influence, 
parochial  schools,  under  the  care  of  parish  priests,  but  sub- 
ject to  episcopal  supervision,  fitted  the  young  people  in  the 
villages  and  smaller  towns  for  performing  skilfully  the 
ceremonies  of  public  worship. 

MONASTIC  SCHOOLS 

Next  in  order  and  more  important  were  the  monastic 
schools.  Monasticism  was  unknown  in  the  Apostolic  Age. 
Out  of  the  ascetic  tendencies  of  the  early  church  grew  the 
hermit  and  cloister  life  which  appeared  first  in  Egypt  in  the 
fourth  century,  was  transplanted  in  Europe  in  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries,  and  became  an  organized  and  permanent 
institution  under  Benedict  of  Nursia  in  the  sixth.  By  the 
seventh  century  Benedictine  monasteries  "were  scattered 
throughout  all  the  countries  that  had  once  composed  the 


394  Influence  of  Christianity  Upon  Education 

Roman  Empire."  Not  more  are  these  monks  of  St.  Bene- 
dict to  be  praised  for  dignifying  labor,  fostering  agriculture, 
training  missionaries,  and  founding  hospitals,  than  for  estab- 
lishing schools,  and  "preserving  the  literary  treasures  of 
antiquity  for  the  use  of  modern  times."  To  their  care  and 
laborious  copying  of  manuscripts  we  ourselves  are  under 
incalculable  obligations  for  the  preservation  and  transmis- 
sion of  the  entire  body  of  classical  and  ancient  learning. 
These  monks  were  the  teachers  and  their  monasteries  were 
the  schools  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The -imperial  educational 
system  had  collapsed  with  the  collapse  of  the  Empire,  and 
we  can  never  adequately  measure  our  indebtedness  to  the 
monastic  schools  which  took  their  place  in  those  times  which 
witnessed  the  decadence  and  final  extinction  of  ancient 
institutions.  First  and  last  from  the  Benedictine  order  have 
proceeded  twenty- four  popes,  15,000  bishops,  and  more  than 
40,000  canonized  and  beatijfied  saints.  At  one  time  their 
37,000  abbeys  in  Europe  were  the  brightest  and  almost  the 
only  centers  of  piety,  charity,  and  learning.  For  several 
centuries  they  were  the  principal  teachers  of  youth  in  all 
branches  of  letters  and  in  all  degrees  of  culture. 

IRISH   SCHOOLS 

But  in  the  times  of  which  we  speak  Europe  was  a  deso- 
lation, and  it  would  have  been  difficult,  perhaps  impossible, 
to  save  learning,  morals,  and  religion  from  the  catastrophe 
which  destroyed  the  Roman  world.  Certain  it  is  that  both 
cathedral  and  monastic  schools  were  caught  in  the  general 
wreck.  The  lamp  of  learning,  almost  extinguished  on  the 
Continent,  burned  brightly  only  in  the  most  distant  of  the 
British  Isles.    As  Dollinger  tells  us : 

While  almost  the  whole  of  Europe  was  desolated  by  war,  peaceful 
Ireland,  whose  schools  were  founded  at  the  close  of  the  fifth  cen- 


Irish  Schools  and  KarVs  Schools  395 

tury,  free  from  the  invasions  of  external  foes,  opened  to  the  lovers 
of  learning  and  piety  a  welcome  asylum. 

From  these  Irish  schools  went  forth  the  bearers  of  letters 
and  religion  to  the  Picts  and  Scots  and  so  down  into  north- 
ern England.  From  these  Irish  and  English  schools,  when 
the  storm  of  fury  was  somewhat  overpast,  went  forth  the 
teachers  and  missionaries  to  re-enlighten  and  evangelize 
France  and  Germany. 

KARL^S  SCHOOLS 

It  was  at  the  arch-episcopal  school  in  York  that  Alcuin 
was  trained,  who,  in  the  eighth  century,  became  intellectual 
prime  minister  at  the  court  of  Charles  the  Great,  and  under 
whose  wise  tuition  that  conqueror,  statesman,  and  patron  of 
learning  re-established  cathedral  and  monastic  schools 
throughout  his  vast  domains.  It  was  under  the  sanction  of 
religion  and  for  the  protection  and  advancement  of  the 
church  that  Charlemagne  inaugurated  his  great  educational 
enterprise.  He  summoned  to  his  court  learned  men  from 
all  parts  of  the  world  through  whose  counsels  he  sought  to 
carry  to  all  his  subjects  the  blessings  of  free  public  educa- 
tion. He  established  grammar  schools  all  over  his  empire, 
the  principle  of  compulsory  attendance  reaching  the  children 
of  rich  and  poor  alike.  His  famous  edict  has  been  called 
the  Charter  of  the  Modern  Public-School  System.  The 
age  in  which  he  lived  was  not  advanced  enough  to  perpetuate 
and  carry  forward  his  enlightened  comprehensive  projects. 
"The  educational  activity  stimulated  by  him  largely  died 
away  during  the  agitated  reigns  of  his  weak  and  grasping 
successors."  His  magnificent  schemes  fell  to  pieces  at  the 
end  of  his  reign  and  the  division  and  dissolution  of  his 
empire. 


396  Influence  of  Christianity  Upon  Education 

SCHOLASTICISM 

But  out  of  the  schools  founded  or  restored  by  Charles 
the  Great  grew  up,  in  the  course  of  time,  the  form  of  phi- 
losophy called  scholasticism,  which  sought  by  the  aid  of 
Aristotle's  logic  to  vindicate  the  truth  and  soundness  of  the 
theology  of  the  church,  and  to  reduce  to  rational  order  and 
system  the  "stupendous  pile  of  dogmas  and  legends"  which 
had  floated  down  the  Christian  ages. 

THE  UNIVERSITIES 

Then,  in  turn,  out  of  this  scholastic  movement  sprang 
the  universities  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
which  at  first  were  simply  "free  associations  of  learned 
men  and  aspiring  youth  held  together  by  their  mutual  inter- 
est in  knowledge."  These  schoolmen,  through  their  reputa- 
tion as  teachers,  drew  such  multitudes  to  their  lectures  that 
it  became  necessary  to  reorganize  the  schools  and  broaden 
their  curriculum.  At  many  centers  throughout  central  and 
western  Europe  these  incipient  universities  made  their  ap- 
pearance. "They  arose  so  suddenly  and  at  so  many  points 
that  it  is  difficult,  in  the  rapidity  of  the  movement,  to  note 
the  several  steps  of  their  historical  development."  Before 
A.  D.  1500  there  were  sixty- four  universities  in  Europe — 
fifteen  in  France,  as  many  in  Germany,  six  in  Spain,  three 
in  Scotland,  and  two  in  England.  How  familiar  to  modern 
ears  are  the  names  of  these  ancient  seats  of  learning — Paris, 
Bologna,  Salerno,  Prague,  Vienna,  Leipsic,  Freiburg, 
Heidelberg,  Tiibingen,  Copenhagen,  Upsala,  St.  Andrews, 
Aberdeen,  Glasgow,  Oxford,  Cambridge,  and  so  on.  "Al- 
though these  universities  were  at  first  free  associations"  yet, 
as  Karl  Schmidt  tells  us,  "as  intellectual  forces  the  church 
sought  to  attach  them  to  itself,  in  order  to  join  to  the  power 
of  faith  the  power  of  knowledge."    The  first  privileges  they 


The  Universities  and  the  Reformation  397 

received  proceeded  from  the  popes.  The  charter  was 
granted  by  the  Roman  pontiff,  and  the  chancellor  was 
usually  the  bishop  of  the  diocese  in  which  the  institution  was 
located.  Kings  were  mindful  of  the  growing  importance 
of  the  rising  universities,  and  sought  to  win  their  influence 
to  the  side  of  monarchy,  vying  with  popes  in  granting  them 
special  immunities.  Nevertheless,  these  institutions  of  higher 
learning  were  ever  under  the  watchful  inspection  of  mother 
church. 

Thus  is  disclosed  to  us  the  intimacy  of  relation  that  sub- 
sisted between  the  church  and  the  school  in  that  long  period 
which  precedes  the  Lutheran  reformation.  Through  all 
those  centuries  it  was  the  church  which  created  and  con- 
trolled the  educational  activities  of  mediaeval  Europe.  It 
was  for  the  church  that  the  school  was  organized,  and  the 
only  education  Christendom  enjoyed  was  that  furnished  by 
her  catechetical,  cathedral,  monastic,  parochial,  and  other 
schools,  and  the  universities  of  the  later  times.  Through  the 
first  fifteen  centuries  education  was  as  exclusively  the 
monopoly  of  the  Christian  church  as  was  religion  itself.  In 
its  totality  education  was  provided  by  Christianity  alone. 

II.       THE  PROTESTANT   REFORMATION 

The  spiritual  awakening  of  the  sixteenth  century  was 
almost  as  much  a  revival  of  education  as  a  revival  of 
religion.  The  Reformation  has  been  described  as  an  insur- 
rection against  the  absolute  power  of  the  spiritual  order,  as 
a  great  endeavor  to  emancipate  human  reason,  a  vast  effort 
made  by  the  human  mind  to  achieve  its  freedom.  This 
mighty  upheaval  was  as  much  in  the  realm  of  intellect  as 
in  the  realm  of  spirit.  The  great  reformers — Luther, 
Melanchthon,  Zwingli,  Knox,  Calvin,  and  the  rest — had 
almost  as  deep  an  interest  in  the  school  as  in  the  church. 


398  Influence  0}  Christianity  Upon  Education 

In  their  respective  countries  the  results  of  their  reforma- 
tory movements  are  as  marked  in  education  as  in  religion. 
The  sources  of  the  educational  histories  of  all  Protestant 
lands  are  as  directly  traceable  to  these  reforming  spirits  as 
are  the  sources  of  their  religious  histories.  The  debt  of 
obligation  is  as  great  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other.  What- 
ever of  education  we  have  we  owe  directly  to  them. 

Luther's  appeal  for  the  establishment  of  schools  has  been 
pronounced  "the  most  important  educational  treatise  ever 
written."  His  first  concern  was  for  the  spiritual  emancipa- 
tion of  his  countrymen,  but  he  plainly  saw  that  the  new 
and  true  view  of  Christianity  could  never  be  defended  and 
advanced  without  the  aid  of  gospel  preachers  and  enlight- 
ened and  godly  rulers,  and  he  also  as  plainly  saw  that  these 
needed  helpers  and  leaders  could  never  be  secured  without 
the  aid  of  schools;  and  he  as  plainly  saw  that  only  by  the 
educational  uplift  of  the  common  people  could  they  ever  be 
brought  to  the  intelligent  acceptance  and  practice  of  the 
evangelical  faith.  His  opinions  and  zeal  were  shared  by  all 
the  other  reformers,  and  hence  the  marvelous  educational 
results  of  the  religious  upheaval  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
When  we  hear  the  words  of  Luther,  the  leader,  we  learn 
the  sentiments  of  his  colleagues  and  followers.  I  quote  at 
haphazard  from  a  half-dozen  of  his  treatises.  The  writ- 
ings of  the  other  reformers  abound  in  like  teachings. 

In  my  judgment  there  is  no  outward  offense  that  in  the  sight  of 
God  so  heavily  burdens  the  world,  and  deserves  such  heavy  chastise- 
ment, as  the  neglect  to   educate  children If  you  have  a  child 

capable  of  learning,  you  are  not  free  to  bring  it  up  as  you  please,  or  to 

deal  with  it  according  to  your  caprice Your  children  are  not  so 

entirely  your  own,  that  you  can  withhold  them  from  God;  he  will  have 

justice,   and   they   are   more    his    than    yours For    the    sake   of 

the   church   we   must   have   and   maintain    Christian   schools.     Young 


\ 


Lutherh  Remarkable  Appeal  }or  Schools  399 

pupils  and  students  are  the  seed  and  source  of  the  church.  When 
schools  prosper  the  church  remains  righteous  and  her  doctrine  pure. 
There  is  nothing  more  necessary  than  to  educate  men  who  are  to 
succeed  us  and  govern.  If  we  were  dead,  whence  would  come  our 
successors,  if  not  from  the  school?  ....  Even  if  there  were  no  soul, 
and  men  did  not  need  schools  and  the  languages  for  the  sake  of 
Christianity  and  the  Scriptures,  still  for  the  establishment  of  the  best 
schools  everywhere,  both  for  boys  and  girls,  this  consideration  is  of 
itself  sufficient,  viz. :  That  society,  for  the  maintenance  of  civil  order 
and  the  proper  regulation  of  the  household,  needs  accomplished  and 
well-trained  men  and  women I  maintain  that  the  civil  authori- 
ties are  under  obligation  to  compel  the  people  to  send  their  children  to 
school,  for  our  rulers  are  bound  to  maintain  the  spiritual  and  secular 

offices  and  callings Wherever  the  government  sees  a  promising 

boy,  let  him  be  sent  to  school.  If  the  father  is  poor  let  the  child  be 
aided  with  the  property  of  the  church.  The  rich  should  make 
bequests  to  such  objects,  as  some  have  done,  who  have  founded 
scholarships — that    is    giving    money    to    the    church    in    the     right 

way It  is  the  duty  of  the  mayors  and  council  to  exercise  the 

greatest  care  over  the  young.  For  since  the  happiness,  honor  and 
life  of  the  city  are  committed  to  their  hands,  they  would  be  held 
recreant  before  God  and  the  world,  if  they  did  not,  day  and  night, 
with  all  their  power,  seek  its  welfare  and  improvement.  Now  the 
welfare  of  a  city  does  not  consist  alone  in  great  treasures,  firm  walls, 
beautiful  houses  and  abundant  munitions  of  war;  indeed,  where  all 
these  are  found,  and  reckless  fools  come  into  power,  the  city  sustains 
the  greatest  injury.  But  the  highest  welfare,  safety  and  honor  of  a 
city  consists   in  able,  learned,  wise   and  cultivated   citizens,   who   can 

secure,    preserve    and   utilize    every   treasure    and    advantage A 

schoolmaster  is  as  important  to  a  city  as  a  pastor  is.  We  can  do  with- 
out mayors,  princes  and  noblemen,  but  not  without  schools,  for  these 
must  rule  the  world.  Schools  are  indispensable,  and  if  I  were  not  a 
preacher  there  is  no  other  calling  on  earth  I  would  rather  have.  We 
must  consider,  not  how  the  world  esteems  and  rewards  it,  but  how 
God  looks  upon  it. 

These  ideas  of  Luther  bore  their  legitimate  fruit  in  all 
the  countries  reached  by  the  Protestant  Reformation; 
through  Luther's  own  labors  in  Germany;  through  Zwingli 


400  Influence  of  Christianity  Upon  Education 

and  Calvin  in  Switzerland;  through  Knox  in  Scotland,  and 
through  the  reformers  who  followed  in  their  footsteps  in 
England,  Holland,  Scandinavia,  and  America.  Most  ob- 
vious is  it  that  the  educational  systems  and  all  the  provisions 
for  intellectual  culture  in  all  Protestant  lands  were  created 
by  the  men  of  God  who  inaugurated  the  Reformation 
movement. 

GERMANY 

In  Germany  the  existing  state-church  arrangement,  pro- 
viding alike  for  religion  and  education,  is  the  direct  out- 
growth of  Luther's  plan.  The  schools  are,  in  large  part,  a 
realization  of  his  idea,  and  most  that  is  best  in  the  system 
is  to  be  attributed  to  his  wisdom  and  foresight. 

ENGLAND 

In  England  not  less  does  popular  education  owe  its 
existence  directly  to  Christianity.  Through  Robert  Raikes 
the  Sunday  schools  were  first  established,  which  are  the 
beginning  of  popular  instruction.  Through  Andrew  Bell, 
who  gained  his  inspiration  from  Robert  Raikes,  the  Church 
of  England  clergy  were  aroused  to  form  their  national 
society  for  establishing  schools  throughout  the  British 
dominions.  Through  the  Quaker,  Joseph  Lancaster,  whose 
school  in  London  met  with  phenomenal  success,  the  Dissent- 
ers were  led  to  organize  their  British  and  Foreign  School 
Society.  Through  the  efforts  of  these  societies — often 
working  in  rivalry — popular  schools  sprang  up  all  over 
England.  Not  until  1818  could  the  churches  induce  the 
English  government  to  take  an  interest.  Not  until  1834 
was  an  annual  grant  for  education  secured;  and  not  until 
1870  did  general  and  compulsory  elementary  education 
become  the  law  of  the  land.  The  national  schools  of  Eng- 
land— corresponding  to  our  public  schools — owe  their  exist- 


English  Schools  Fostered  by  the  Church  401 

ence  directly  to  the  interest  of  churchmen  and  Dissenters  in 
the  neglected  classes. 

The  great  public  schools  of  England — Winchester, 
Eton,  Charterhouse,  Christ's  Hospital,  Harrow,  Rugby, 
etc. — corresponding  to  our  best  preparatory  academies,  like 
Exeter,  Andover,  Worcester,  and  Morgan  Park,  were  all 
founded — with  three  exceptions — in  the  sixteenth  century — 
founded  for  the  most  part  by  bishops  and  churchmen,  whose 
inspiration  was  drawn  directly  from  the  Reformation. 

The  two  great  universities — Oxford  and  Cambridge — 
grew  originally  out  of  monastic  schools,  and  through  all 
their  history  have  been  under  ecclesiastical  control.  In  the 
Reformation  period  they  passed  from  the  Catholic  church 
to  the  English  establishment.  Until  our  own  day  persons 
unable  or  unwilling  to  sign  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  were 
absolutely  excluded,  not  merely  from  degrees,  but  from  all 
access  to  their  halls.  The  great  majority  of  the  fellows 
were  bound  to  take  holy  orders,  and  the  universities  were 
wholly  dominated  by  the  clerical  spirit.  Not  until  1871 
were  the  university  tests  abolished,  and  the  admission  of 
Non-conformists  granted.  Probably  not  five  persons  in  this 
house  could,  thirty  years  ago,  have  gained  access  to  either 
Cambridge  or  Oxford — barred  out  by  lack  of  religious 
qualification. 

The  establishment  by  Dissenters  of  academies  and  col- 
leges in  nearly  every  shire  in  England,  in  which  the  children 
of  Non-conformists  received  their  scholastic  training,  grew 
out  of  this  religious  exclusiveness  on  the  part  of  the  great 
universities.  These  numerous  denominational  institutions 
are  supported  by  the  voluntary  contributions  and  endow- 
ments of  the  various  Christian  sects  to  which  they  belong. 
So  wholly  and  exclusively  has  education  in  England  been 
the  creation  and  monopoly  of  Christianity ! 


402  Influence  of  Christianity  Upon  Education 

AMERICA 

Passing  over  to  America,  our  own  educational  history  is 
of  the  deepest  interest,  and  exhibits,  in  the  most  striking 
manner,  the  part  which  Christianity  has  played  in  its  in- 
ception and  progress.  The  Puritans  who  founded  Massa- 
chusetts were  Protestants  of  the  most  ultra  type.  They 
were  men  of  the  strongest  religious  convictions  and  of  the 
ripest  intellectual  culture.  As  Archbishop  Hughes  says: 
"Next  to  religion  they  prized  education."  As  early  as  1636 
they  founded  Harvard.  They  called  the  name  of  the  place 
"Cambridge"  after  the  old  Cambridge  where  most  of  them 
graduated.  They  called  the  name  of  the  college  "Harvard" 
after  that  "Reverend  and  Godly  lover  of  learning,"  John 
Harvard,  who  bequeathed  it  his  library  and  half  his  prop- 
erty. In  pathetic  language  they  tell  us  the  reason  for  their 
action : 

After  God  had  carried  us  safe  to  New  England  and  we  had  builded 
our  houses,  provided  necessaries  for  our  livelihood,  reared  convenient 
places  for  God's  worship,  and  settled  the  civil  government,  one  of  the 
next  things  we  longed  for  and  looked  after  was  to  advance  learning 
and  perpetuate  it  to  posterity;  dreading  to  leave  an  illiterate  ministry 
to  the  churches  when  our  present  ministry  shall  lie  in  the  dust. 

Their  pious  wish  was  gratified,  for  in  Harvard's  first  cen- 
tennial (1642-1742)  out  of  1,421  graduates  641  were 
ministers. 

Next  to  Harvard  came  "William  and  Mary,"  founded 
in  1692.  The  charter  declares  that  the  college  was  estab- 
lished 

to  the  end  that  the  Church  of  Virginia  may  be  furnished  with  a 
seminary  of  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  that  the  youth  may  be 
piously  educated  in  good  letters  and  manners,  and  that  the  Christian 
faith  may  be  propagated  among  the  western  Indians  to  the  glory  of 
Almighty  God. 


American  Colleges  Founded  by  Christians  403 

The  divinity  taught  in  this  college  "was  shaped  and 
moulded  at  every  point  by  the  liturgy  and  creed  of  the 
English  church." 

Third  in  order  was  Yale,  founded  in  1700 — born  of  the 
religious  needs  of  the  Connecticut  colony.  As  with  Harvard, 
so  with  Yale,  those  most  forward  in  founding  it  were  minis- 
ters of  the  gospel.  The  thirteen  Connecticut  pastors  who 
started  Yale  were  themselves  men  of  college  training,  and 
realized  its  value  to  the  infant  colony.  Their  charter 
provided 

for  the  founding,  suitably  endowing  and  ordering  a  collegiate  school 
within  his  Majesty's  colonies  of  Connecticut,  wherein  youth  may  be 
instructed  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  who,  through  the  blessing  of 
Almighty  God,  may  be  fitted  for  public  employment  in  the  church  and 
civil  state. 

These  three  were  the  only  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing in  America  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

In  that  century  (the  eighteenth),  following  these  three, 
came  Princeton,  Pennsylvania,  Columbia,  Brown,  Dart- 
mouth, Williams,  Bowdoin,  and  others — most  of  them 
founded  by  Christian  ministers,  and  all  of  them  by  Christian 
men,  with  Christian  money,  for  Christian  ends. 

Never  in  history  have  colleges  multiplied  as  they  have 
in  our  own  country  in  our  own  century.  It  is  to  be  noted 
that  most  of  them  have  been  distinctly  Christian,  and  even 
denominational,  from  the  very  beginning — 84  per  cent,  of 
the  entire  number  rest  on  foundations  avowedly  religious; 
80  per  cent,  of  all  undergraduates  are  attending  colleges 
conducted  by  evangelical  churches;  and  54  per  cent,  of  all 
college  students  are  professors  of  religion. 

The  state  universities  are  not  organically  connected  with 
the  Christian  church  in  any  of  its  denominational  forms, 
but  they  are  often  as  pronouncedly  Christian  as  universities 


404  Influence  0}  Christianity  Upon  Education 

under  denominational  control.  Their  presidents,  most  of 
them,  belong  to  evangelical  churches  and  are  men  of  decided 
religious  conviction  and  influence.  No  state  school  would 
dare  to  declare  itself  hostile  or  even  lukewarm  to  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  only  9  per 
cent,  of  the  population  of  the  United  States  are  anti- 
Christian  in  their  sentiments — made  up  of  the  illiterate, 
vicious,  pauper  class,  without  character  and  without  influ- 
ence, while  79  per  cent,  are  in  alliance  with  the  Protes- 
tant communions,  and  80  per  cent,  of  the  wealth  of  the 
land  is  in  the  hands  of  the  church  members.  It  is 
Christian  men  who  vote  for  the  establishment  of  the  state 
universities  and  it  is  Christian  men  who  pay  the  taxes  for 
their  support.  So  while  the  denominational  academies  and 
colleges  are  distinctively  religious,  and  are  sustained  by  the 
Christians  of  the  various  sects,  it  is  these  very  same  men 
upon  whom  the  state  universities  depend  for  their  con- 
tinuance. In  the  end,  out  of  the  very  same  pockets  comes 
the  money  for  the  maintenance  of  both  classes  of  schools. 

Precisely  the  same  is  true  of  our  common  schools.  The 
ignorant,  irreligious  9  per  cent,  of  the  population  never 
established  them,  and  are  too  poor  to  pay  for  them.  Their 
children,  by  a  compulsory  law,  are  forced  to  reap  the  benefit 
of  them — and  that  is  all.  To  old  Massachusetts  belongs 
the  honor  of  starting  them,  the  very  year  after  founding 
Harvard;  and  to  the  end  that  "learning  may  not  be  buried 
in  the  grave  of  our  fathers  in  church  and  commonwealth, 
the  Lord  assisting  our  endeavors." 

Were  the  time  at  our  disposal  it  might  easily  be  shown 
that  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  the  matter,  the  method, 
and  the  motive  of  education  has  been  as  marked  and  influ- 
ential through  the  centuries  as  we  have  seen  that  influence 
to  have  been  on  the  measure  of  it. 


XVI 

THE  PLACE  OF  THE  HOME  MISSION  SOCIETY 
IN  THE  EVANGELIZATION  OF  AMERICAN 
CITIES 


XVI 

THE  PLACE  OF  THE  HOME  MISSION  SOCIETY 
IN  THE  EVANGELIZATION  OF  AMERICAN 
CITIES  1 

"I  look  upon  the  size  of  certain  American  cities,  and 
especially  upon  the  nature  of  their  population,  as  a  real 
danger  which  threatens  the  security  of  the  democratic 
republics  of  the  New  World."  This  was  said  by  de  Toque- 
ville  early  in  the  century,  when  our  urban  population  was 
relatively  less  than  a  third  as  large  and  heterogeneous  as  it 
is  today.  A  few  decades  later  Wendell  Phillips  said,  "The 
time  will  come  when  our  cities  will  strain  our  institutions 
as  slavery  never  did."  Still  later  Professor  Bryce  said, 
"The  one  conspicuous  failure  of  American  institutions  is  the 
government  of  her  great  cities."  Later  still  Professor  Gid- 
dings  said,  "We  are  witnessing  today,  beyond  question,  the 
decay — perhaps  not  permanent,  but  at  any  rate  the  decay — ■ 
of  republican  institutions.  No  man  in  his  right  mind  can 
deny  it."  At  the  close  of  the  century  our  wisest  political 
scientists  have  not  yielded  to  despair,  but  they  are  sane 
enough  to  see  that  in  the  near  future  cities  are  to  control 
the  nation,  and  that,  consequently,  the  fate  of  the  republic 
hangs,  as  Burke  phrases  it,  "in  a  dancing  and  hesitating 
balance."  Let  increasing  civic  intelligence  and  integrity 
wield  increasing  national  power  or  the  end  must  be  dis- 
astrous. Arrest  and  reverse  the  movement,  or  suffer  the 
fatal  consequence. 

The  city  holds  the  strategic  position  in  things  religious 

^Address  at  the  May  Anniversaries,   1899,   San  Francisco,   Cal. 

407 


4o8  The  Evangelization  of  American  Cities 

not  less  than  in  things  pohtical,  and  therefore  the  problem 
of  the  city  as  much  concerns  the  churchman  as  the  states- 
man. In  the  study  of  the  problem  on  its  religious  side  and 
in  the  interest  of  evangelical  Christianity,  answers  to  two 
inquiries  will  reward  our  labors.  In  American  cities :  ( i ) 
What  is  the  status  of  that  type  of  religion  which  we  repre- 
sent? (2)  How  can  that  status  be  improved?  Partisan 
prepossessions  ought  to  be  excluded,  and  search  for  truth 
ought  to  guide  the  investigation. 

I.       THE  RELIGIOUS  STATUS  OF  CITIES 

Inquiry,  in  the  first  place,  along  numerical  lines  will 
yield  instructive  results.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  knowl- 
edge that  in  the  present  century,  throughout  the  civilized 
world,  the  increasing  population  has  drifted  from  the  country 
to  the  city.  The  century  has  witnessed  an  urban  growth 
wholly  unprecedented  in  the  world's  history.  In  our  own 
day  a  movement  hitherto  unknown  is  displacing  and  re- 
placing the  populations  of  Christendom.  This  phenomenal 
massing  of  the  people  is  one  of  the  most  striking  features 
of  modern  times.  The  movement  is  not  by  chance.  About 
it  there  is  nothing  mysterious.  For  it  the  political  econo- 
mists and  others  can  cite  an  adequate  and  obvious  cause. 
An  economic  law — level  to  the  mind  of  a  child — is  redis- 
tributing the  peoples  of  the  earth.  Its  working  cannot  be 
arrested.  It  is  all-embracing  and  constant  as  the  law  of 
gravitation.  In  the  new  century  it  will  work  right  on,  and, 
under  its  continued  action,  will  create  an  ever-increasing 
relative  disproportion  between  rural  and  urban  populations. 

America  is  in  no  wise  peculiar  in  this  regard.  In  Europe, 
as  well,  the  cities  are  outstripping  the  rural  districts.  Scot- 
land is  growing  at  the  rate  of  eleven  per  cent,  a  year,  but  her 
cities  absorb  it  all.  In  Denmark  the  towns  grow  nearly  twice 


The  Religious  Status  0}  Cities  409 

as  fast  as  the  country ;  in  Germany  and  Belgium  more  than 
twice ;  in  England  and  Wales  nearly  three  times ;  in  Sweden 
four  times,  and  in  Norway  ten.  In  Prussia  the  cities  are 
making  phenomenal  gains  at  the  expense  of  an  actually 
decreasing  rural  population ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  France, 
whose  cities  continue  to  increase,  in  spite  of  the  stationary 
population  of  the  nation  at  large.  In  large  numbers  the 
people  of  Ireland  forsake  their  native  soil  to  seek  homes  in 
other  lands,  but  out  of  every  hundred  it  is  ninety-eight  from 
the  country  and  only  two  from  the  city.  The  capitals  of 
Europe  exhibit  the  working  of  this  law  in  the  most  striking 
manner.  The  larger  the  city  the  more  phenomenal  is  its 
growth.  The  foundations  of  London  were  laid  before 
Caesar  invaded  Gaul,  and  yet  it  was  only  one-fifth  its 
present  size  the  day  William  Carey  sailed  away  for  India. 
In  the  hundred  years  prior  to  that  event  the  gain  was  less 
than  fifty  per  cent. ;  in  the  hundred  years  since  it  has  been 
more  than  five  hundred  per  cent.  The  population  of  Rome 
has  doubled  since  Leo  XIII  became  pope ;  that  of  St.  Peters- 
burg has  trebled  since  Nicholas  was  crowned;  that  of  Paris 
has  quadrupled  since  Napoleon  was  overthrown.  London 
today  is  growing  faster  than  New  York,  and  Glasgow  and 
Berlin  faster  than  Chicago  and  Philadelphia. 

Returning  to  America,  what  wonders  the  century 
reveals!  In  a  hundred  years  the  population  of  the  repub- 
lic has  increased  twelvefold,  but  of  her  cities  eighty-six  fold. 
The  last  census  showed  in  ten  years,  outside  of  city  limits, 
an  increase  of  fourteen  per  cent.,  but  inside  an  increase  of 
sixty-one  per  cent.  This  urban  gain  was  at  the  expense 
of  the  rural  districts,  for  the  census  showed  an  actual  de- 
crease of  population  in  more  than  ten  thousand  townships. 
The  very  decade  that  diminished  the  number  of  inhabitants 
in   nearly   eight   hundred   Illinois   townships   doubled   the 


41  o  The  Evangelization  0}  American  Cities 

population  of  the  state's  chief  city.  In  the  same  way  hun- 
dreds of  New  England's  townships  fell  hehind,  while  all 
her  larger  cities  made  enormous  gains.  In  the  United 
States  are  millions  of  acres  of  the  best  land  on  earth,  which 
the  government  is  anxious  to  give  away  to  actual  settlers, 
but  a  relatively  decreasing  number  of  people  is  destined  to 
live  on  farming  lands.  By  a  law  as  fixed  and  irresistible  as 
the  law  which  rolls  the  earth  in  space,  the  movement  of 
human  kind  is  out  of  the  country  into  the  city.  Men  are 
now  living  who  will  see  more  than  half  our  population 
urban.  Statistical  specialists  compute  that  so  early  as  1920 
the  urban  will  outnumber  the  rural  by  more  than  ten  mil- 
lions. 

In  this  study  of  American  cities  two  questions  are  held 
in  mind:  first,  What  is  their  religious  condition?  and 
secondly.  How  can  this  condition  be  improved  ?  In  answer 
to  the  former,  we  are  trying,  first  of  all,  to  get  some  light 
out  of  mere  numbers.  The  cities  in  this  country  have  gained 
in  size  as  never  before  in  history.  This  is  the  most  patent 
of  facts.  Can  the  same  be  said  of  the  churches  professing 
the  evangelical  faith?  It  is  the  question  of  preponderating 
numbers.  With  the  phenomenal  growth  of  American  cities, 
have  the  Protestant  churches  maintained  a  corresponding 
growth?  In  the  century,  the  total  population  increased 
twelvefold;  the  church  membership  thirty-nine  fold;  the 
urban  population  eighty-six  fold — church  membership  thus 
multiplying  three  times  as  fast  as  the  population  of  the 
entire  nation,  but  not  half  as  fast  as  the  population  of  its 
cities.  The  separate  and  complete  statistics  for  the  evan- 
gelical communions  are  not  accessible,  but  wherever  they 
have  been  collated  they  always  point  one  way.  In  no 
marked  manner  do  the  smaller  cities  differ  from  the  larger, 
except  that  the  larger  contain  densely  populated  districts  in 


Growth  of  Cities  and  Churches  411 

which  conditions  exist  which  the  smaller  cannot  parallel. 
In  Boston,  in  1840,  there  was  a  Protestant  church  for  every 
1,228  souls;  in  1890,  one  for  every  2,581  souls.  In  New 
York,  in  1840,  there  was  a  Protestant  church  for  every 
1,992  souls;  in  1890,  one  for  every  4,361  souls.  In  four 
Atlantic  cities  combined,  in  1840,  there  was  a  Protestant 
church  for  every  1,336  souls;  fifty  years  later,  in  1890, 
there  was  a  Protestant  church  for  every  2,300  souls.  These 
six  representative  eastern  cities  show  the  Protestant  churches 
growing  not  half  as  fast  as  the  urban  population.  Statistics 
for  the  larger  central  and  western  cities  yield  essentially  the 
same  results.  In  the  country  at  large  there  is  a  Protestant 
church  for  every  five  hundred  people.  In  cities  of  rapid 
growth  this  proportion  is  far  from  being  maintained.  Cities 
making  an  annual  increase  of  10,000,  20,000,  40,000,  call 
every  year  for  twenty,  forty,  eighty,  newly  organized 
Protestant  churches.  Nowhere  is  this  call  heeded.  In  sec- 
tions of  the  largest  cities  a  state  of  things  exists  well-nigh 
incredible.  In  certain  areas  are  forty-four  thousand  people 
and  seven  Protesant  churches;  fifty  thousand  people  and 
one  Protestant  church;  sixty  thousand  people  and  one 
Protestant  church ;  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  people 
and  thirty-one  Protestant  churches.  In  the  four  areas  are 
five  hundred  and  fourteen  thousand  people  and  forty  Protes- 
tant churches — one  church  for  twelve  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred and  fifty-one  people,  whereas  the  average  for  the 
country  at  large  is  one  for  every  five  hundred.  What  then 
is  the  condition  and  what  are  the  prospects  of  Protestant 
Christianity  in  American  cities,  so  far  as  mere  numbers 
make  the  disclosure  ?  Grant  that  the  status  is  twice  or  thrice 
as  favorable  as  the  figures  indicate — still,  how  fares  it  with 
our  religion  in  the  big  and  growing  towns? 

In  the  second  place,  inquiry  along  industrial  lines  will 


412  The  Evangelization  of  American  Cities 

yield  instructive  returns.  For  the  purposes  of  this  discus- 
sion, the  dwellers  in  cities  may  be  divided  into  two  classes : 
those  who  live  by  their  hands,  and  those  who  live  by  their 
wits — the  workers  for  wages  and  the  workers  for  profits, 
fees,  and  salaries.  The  common  designation  for  the  former 
class  is  working-men.  They  are  the  day-laborers,  the 
factory  operatives,  the  toilers  in  mechanical  industries,  the 
bearers  of  physical  burdens — the  hewers  of  wood  and  draw- 
ers of  water — the  wage  and  servant  class.  They  are  the 
people  who  know  the  least  of  creature  comforts,  whose 
homes  are  least  cheerful,  whose  food  is  least  wholesome  and 
abundant,  whose  minds  are  least  stirred  and  developed, 
whose  tastes  are  least  cultivated — the  lower  and  lowest 
social  stratum.  They  are  the  people  whose  outlook  is  least 
hopeful,  upon  whose  intelligence  the  coming  years  will  make 
diminishing  demands  because  perfected  machinery  will 
more  and  more  substitute  unskilled  for  skilled  labor,  even 
children  taking  the  place  of  trained  mechanics — working- 
men  being  crowded  into  big  factories  to  be  manipulators  of 
well-nigh  automatic  machines — with  nothing  in  their  occu- 
pation to  awaken  intellect,  exercise  judgment,  or  develop 
character.  They  are  the  people  who  constitute  in  point  of 
numbers  the  larger  part  of  the  urban  population.  Of  the 
dwellers  in  cities  sixty  per  cent,  are  to  be  so  classified,  and 
industrial  conditions  are  such  that  the  percentage  will  be 
greater  in  the  years  to  come. 

Now  to  both  parties  it  becomes  a  question  of  porten- 
tous concern,  what  relation  exists  between  the  evangelical 
Protestant  churches  and  this  wage-earning  class?  If  the 
relation  is  strained  and  is  to  continue  so,  no  mortal  can 
forecast  the  consequences.  That  reciprocal,  friendly,  and 
helpful  relations  do  not  exist  is  matter  of  common  knowl- 
edge. 


Working-Men  and  the  Church  413 

On  the  one  hand,  the  churches  know  Httle  of  the  work- 
ing people,  and  take  Httle  pains  to  acquaint  themselves  with 
their  hard  lot  and  their  struggles  to  better  their  condition. 
The  sentiment  of  sympathy  and  helpfulness,  not  allowed  to 
flow  out  and  bless,  dries  and  hardens  into  a  temper  of  in- 
difference and  distrust.  Their  lack  of  money,  intelligence, 
and  refinement,  and  their  complaining  spirit,  not  accepting 
gracefully  their  station  in  life,  make  them  rather  undesir- 
able and  even  embarrassing  material  for  membership,  and 
so  in  many  churches  their  presence,  and  especially  in  large 
numbers,  is  not  welcomed,  especially  if  the  tendency  is  to 
drive  away  their  betters. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  wage-earners,  with  notable  excep- 
tions, have  no  dealings  with  the  churches.  They  seldom 
cross  their  thresholds.  In  thousands  of  congregations  even 
a  single  representative  is  rarely  seen.  In  hundreds  of  the 
largest  and  wealthiest  churches  not  a  name  belonging  to  this 
class  appears  on  the  register.  A  grievance,  partly  fancied, 
partly  real,  has  gendered  a  spirit  of  indifference  and 
alienation,  growing,  in  many  quarters,  into  open  and  avowed 
hostility.  The  working  people  regard  the  economic  and 
industrial  system,  everywhere  prevailing  in  modern  times, 
as  a  diabolical  scheme  devised  of  set  purpose  to  rob  and 
degrade  them.  They  look  upon  the  churches  as  upholders 
of  this  scheme  and  in  league  with  its  inventors  to  oppress 
and  destroy  them.  They  look  upon  the  ministers  as  in  such 
helpless  dependence  on  the  men  who  pay  their  salaries  that 
they  dare  not  heed  the  poor  man's  cry  nor  help  to  right  his 
wrongs.  Truth  that  can  express  itself  in  the  terms  of  the 
existing  economic  order  is  the  only  truth  they  are  bold 
enough  to  utter.  In  proof  that  the  statement  is  not  over- 
drawn, listen  to  the  very  words  from  the  lips  of  the  work- 
ing-men themselves  and  their  authorized  representatives: 


414  The  Evangelization  0}  American  Cities 

"Men  have  grown  hard  under  bitter  conditions."  "The 
churches  are  sustained  by  rich  men  who  grind  their  work- 
men." "Their  employers  attend  and  control  the  churches." 
"The  men  who  grind  them  in  business  are  the  ones  whom 
they  recognize  in  the  front  pews."  "The  churches  are  not 
built  by  them,  nor  for  them,  but  with  money  taken  from 
them  to  be  used  against  them."  "Until  the  church  repents 
of  its  money-worship,  it  is  not  a  fit  companion  for  the  com- 
mon people."  "Let  the  church  help  us  fight  some  of  our 
battles  with  the  rich,  and  show  it  is  friendly  with  the  work- 
ing classes."  "There  is  no  hope  of  social  reform  through 
the  church  as  it  exists  today."  "Ministers  are  muzzled,  and 
dare  not  preach  the  gospel  of  the  carpenter  of  Nazareth." 
"We  are  very  well  satisfied  to  have  working-men  out  of 
touch  with  the  church ;  the  church  must  learn  before  it  can 
instruct."  "Plenty  of  ecclesiasticism  in  the  church,  little 
Christianity."  "Christianity  is  another  name  for  love  and 
truth;  'churchanity'  for  injustice  and  oppression."  "Cheer 
the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  and  hiss  the  church,  honoring  the 
one,  scouting  the  other."  "The  effort  of  the  church  to 
reconcile  the  commercial  morals  of  modern  industrialism 
with  the  revelation  of  human  law  and  life  in  Christ  is 
treason  to  the  kingdom  of  God."  "Jesus  Christ  is  with  us 
outside  the  church."  "The  American  working-man  hates 
the  very  shadow  that  the  spire  of  the  church  casts  across 
his  pathway." 

Now  grant  that  this  terrific  indictment  is  largely  false, 
based  on  ignorance  and  prejudice,  it  still  remains  the  awful 
fact  that  working-men  as  a  class,  with  or  without  reason, 
repudiate  the  church,  and  hate  the  very  shadow  its  spire 
casts  across  their  path.  They  constitute  more  than  half  the 
inhabitants  of  our  cities,  and  their  numbers  relatively  are 
to  be  even  greater  in  the  coming  century.    Their  alienation 


The  Church  and  Foreigners  415 

from  the  church  is  an  awful  fact,  which  ought  to  appall 
every  Protestant  Christian,  Is  there  a  chasm  between  the 
upper  and  lower  classes  which  neither  will  cross — the  lower 
through  envy  and  hatred,  the  upper  through  hardness  and 
pride — and  which  Protestant  Christianity  has  no  power  to 
bridge?  Is  ours  a  class  religion,  patronized  and  supported 
by  the  well-to-do,  the  select  minority,  unsuited  to  the  toil- 
ing majority  who  throng  our  cities?  If  this  is  its  animus 
and  prospect  well  may  we  ask,  Does  it  truly  represent  the 
faith  which  was  born  in  a  manger,  proclaimed  by  a  carpen- 
ter, sublimely  lived  out  by  a  peasant,  and  originally  carried 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth  by  a  band  of  fishermen  whose 
birth  and  life  were  cast  with  common  working  people? 

In  the  third  place,  inquiry  along  ethnic  lines  will  yield 
helpful  results.  America  is  a  magnet.  It  has  drawn  from 
every  quarter  of  the  globe.  For  generations  it  has  attracted 
the  surplus  populations  of  Europe  and  Asia.  Representa- 
tives of  fifty  or  sixty  nationalities  walk  our  streets.  Every 
year  sees  a  less  desirable  quality  of  immigration.  Of  these 
aliens  twenty-five  per  cent,  cannot  speak  English;  and  mil- 
lions of  them  can  neither  read  nor  write  their  own  language. 
They  are  three  times  as  prone  to  pauperism  as  our  own 
people,  and  two  and  one-half  times  as  prone  to  crime. 

Now  the  fact  to  be  noted  is  that  if  America  is  a  magnet 
in  general,  the  American  city  is  a  magnet  in  particular. 
These  people  are  not  evenly  distributed  over  the  face  of  the 
country,  but  concentrated  in  the  larger  towns.  Seventy-five 
per  cent,  of  them  have  made  their  abode  in  cities.  Half  the 
voters  of  Chicago  and  New  York  are  foreign  born.  In 
fifty  of  our  chief  centers,  one-third  the  people,  and  in 
eighteen  of  them  more  than  one-half,  were  born  beyond  the 
sea.  How  appropriately  do  we  speak  of  American  cities, 
when  the  statistics   show  that  in   Philadelphia   and   New 


41 6  The  Evangelization  0}  American  Cities 

Orleans  fifty-one  per  cent,  are  aliens  or  their  children  of 
the  first  generation ;  in  Providence,  fifty-two  per  cent. ;  in 
Cincinnati,  sixty  per  cent. ;  in  Boston,  sixty-three  per  cent. ; 
in  Brooklyn,  sixty-seven  per  cent. ;  in  Buffalo,  seventy-one 
per  cent. ;  in  San  Francisco,  seventy-eight  per  cent. ;  in  St. 
Louis,  seventy-eight  per  cent. ;  in  New  York,  eighty  per 
cent. ;  in  Milwaukee,  eighty-four  per  cent. ;  in  Detroit, 
eighty-four  per  cent. ;  in  Chicago,  eighty-seven  per  cent. 

Now 'in  behalf  of  these  aggregated  peoples  from  dis- 
tant shoresj  evangelical  foreign  churches  are  doing  a  worthy 
but  inconsiderable  work.  Scandinavian,  German,  and  other 
churches  professing  the  Congregational,  Methodist,  or  Bap- 
tist faith  have  won  a  few  disciples,  but  the  millions  reimain 
untouched.  The  American  churches  are  locally  and  socially 
separated  from  them,  never  see  them,  scarcely  know  of  their 
existence,  would  be  astounded  to  learn  how  overwhelming 
are  their  numbers. 

In  Paul's  mind  these  race  distinctions  were  obliterated: 
Jew  and  Gentile,  Greek  and  barbarian,  were  all  alike  to  him. 
Is  Protestant  Christianity  sufficiently  Pauline  successfully 
to  cross  national  boundaries  and  carry  the  gospel  to  the 
Europeans  and  Asiatics  who  throng  our  cities?  Have 
American  Christians  enough  of  the  foreign  missionary 
spirit  to  send  their  money  and  friends  to  China,  Italy,  and 
India,  and  then  to  go  themselves  to  the  little  Chinas,  Indias, 
Italics,  Polands,  Bohemias,  and  so  on,  which  have  crossed 
the  seas  to  set  up  the  selfsame  heathenism  a  dozen  blocks 
away?  A  five-cent  fare  with  a  transfer  ticket  will  land  the 
missionary  on  his  chosen  field. 

The  truth  is,  we,  Protestant  evangelicals,  accounting 
ourselves  the  possessors  and  champions  of  genuine  religion, 
are  surrounded  and  hemmed  in  by  coreligionists  who  have 
read  their   bibles  and   consciences   all   amiss — Romanists, 


The  Topographical  Distribution  of  Churches         417 

superstitious  and  bigoted;  Lutherans,  formal  and  worldly; 
Jews,  legal  and  blind ;  heathen,  godless  and  corrupt.  In  the 
country  at  large  our  people  outnumber  the  Catholics  two  to 
one,  but  in  the  four  largest  cities  the  figures  are  exactly 
reversed.  Multitudes  of  these  adherents  of  false  and  de- 
stroying creeds  drift  away  from  their  mother-faith  into 
agnosticism  and  blatant  infidelity,  but  few  indeed  embrace 
our  more  rational  and  spiritual  religion  and  mode  of  life. 
Seldom  do  they  pass  the  portals  of  our  sanctuaries ;  and  on 
our  part,  in  turn,  feeble  and  therefore  futile  are  the  efforts 
in  their  behalf.  When,  without  our  aid,  moved  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  a  Papist,  Lutheran,  Jew,  or  infidel  becomes  a 
Baptist,  the  wondering  pastor  sends  a  notice  of  it  to  his 
religious  journal. 

In  the  fourth  place,  inquiry  along  topographical  lines  will 
yield  instructive  results.  Remember  we  are  asking  after  the 
actual  status  of  evangelical  religion  in  American  cities.  In 
large  towns  the  people  are  distributed  over  the  geographical 
area  unevenly;  in  small  places  the  same  is  true,  only  in  a 
degree  less  marked.  In  sections,  the  population  is  sparse, 
in  other  sections,  dense.  On  avenues,  boulevards,  and 
around  the  parks,  space  abounds;  along  the  river-fronts, 
near  the  docks,  in  tenement  districts,  and  in  factory  quarters, 
folk  abound. 

An  urban  population  may  be  divided  into  two  classes, 
the  few  and  the  many.  The  few  enjoy  space  and  have 
pleasant  surroundings.  They  live  perhaps  in  single  and 
separated  houses,  owned  or  rented,  with  little  yards  in  front 
or  rear,  and  have  a  chance  to  breathe,  and  a  little  elbow 
room.  On  the  contrary,  the  many  huddle  together  in  con- 
tracted quarters,  whole  families  dwelling  in  single  apart- 
ments, and  groups  of  families  under  a  single  roof,  with 
sunshine  and  air  forbidden  luxuries.     It  is  said  that  the 


41 8  The  Evangelization  0}  American  Cities 

congested  districts  in  American  capitals  parallel  those  of 
the  capitals  of  Europe.  Think  of  the  families  of  Glasgow, 
one-third  of  whom  live  each  in  one  room,  and  two-fifths  of 
whom  live  in  two  rooms — seventy-eight  families  in  one 
hundred  living  each  in  one  room  or  two.  Think  of  London, 
the  heart  of  Christendom,  in  which  two  and  one-half  mil- 
lions of  immortal  beings,  singly  or  in  batches,  sleep,  cook, 
eat,  bathe,  and  exist  in  a  single  room.  In  broad  America  in 
farming  and  prairie,  in  mountain  and  grazing  regions  space 
is  the  chief  commodity,  but  in  the  city  it  brings  the  highest 
premium.  So  sixty-six  per  cent  of  the  farmers  can  own 
their  own  homes,  but  the  denizens  of  the  towns  must  be 
crushed  together  in  lodging  and  tenement  houses,  night 
workmen  often  renting  for  the  day  the  very  bedroom  day 
workmen  rented  for  the  night.  In  cities  only  thirty  per 
cent,  of  the  dwellers  can  own  their  homes;  in  Boston  only 
eighteen;  in  old  New  York  only  six. 

The  fact  before  us,  the  question  is,  how  is  Protestant 
Christianity  dealing  with  these  two  classes,  the  folk  who 
live  apart  and  the  folk  who  live  together  ?  A  church  map  of 
any  city  will  disclose  the  policy,  viz. :  the  fewer  people,  the 
more  churches;  the  more  people,  the  fewer  churches.  As 
the  people  thicken  the  churches  thin.  Strange  spectacle! 
Multiply  the  souls  needing  salvation,  divide  the  means  by 
which  to  save  them!  Let  three  thousand  dwell  in  ten 
blocks,  and  evangelical  churches  spring  up  in  numbers;  let 
thirty  thousand  dwell  in  the  same  area  and  the  evangelicals 
run  away.  The  coming  of  a  crowd  is  the  death  of  a  church. 
Crowding  asphyxiates.  The  history  of  many  churches  is 
the  history  of  successive  removals  to  escape  the  encroaching 
multitude.  It  is  a  fleeing  and  search,  not  for  people  to  save, 
but  for  people  to  save  them;  not  the  salvation  of  others,  but 
self-preservation.     A  few  people  living  in  comfort  in  the 


How  Improve  the  Religious  Status  419 

more  pleasant,  spacious,  and  airy  parts  of  the  city  can  do 
more  for  us  than  many  people  huddled  and  squeezed  to- 
gether in  narrow,  unhealthful,  and  repulsive  quarters. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  study  two  main  questions  were 
propounded :  What  is  the  real  status  of  our  kind  of  religion 
in  American  cities?  and  How  can  that  status  be  improved? 
An  approximate  answer  to  the  first  has  been  sought  along 
numerical,  industrial,  ethnic,  and  topographical  lines.  The 
way  is  now  open  for  the  second  question. 

II.       HOW  CAN  THIS  STATUS  BE  IMPROVED? 

Thus  far  in  this  discussion  no  disposition  has  been 
shown  to  deny  or  conceal  the  threatening  aspects  of  the 
urban  situation.  But  pessimism  has  not  held  the  hand  that 
drew  the  outline.  No  follower  of  the  risen  and  reigning 
Christ  can  ever  doubt  the  final  issue.  It  need  not  be  denied, 
however,  that  one  set  purpose  has  been  to  weaken  the  grip 
of  optimism,  the  greatest  peril  next  after  pessimism  into 
which  the  Christian  church  can  fall.  To  be  a  smooth- 
tongued prophet,  calming  apprehension,  affirming  present 
and  perfect  readiness  to  cope  successfully  with  present  and 
rising  ills,  promising  easy  and  speedy  victory  over  foes  less 
real  than  fancied,  mostly  spectral — with  no  occasion  for 
alarm,  no  urgent  call  for  action — to  be  this  oily  fool  or 
falsifier  is  almost  worse  than  to  be  an  open  prophet  of  evil, 
maximizing  difficulties  and  perils,  mourning  a  defeated 
church,  and  bemoaning  a  ruined  cause.  The  exact  truth  is 
that  things  are  not  so  bad  as  to  warrant  a  despairing  pessi- 
mism, nor  so  good  as  to  justify  a  thoughtless  optimism. 
Our  urgent  need  is  neither,  but  simple,  sober  sanity.  "Wis- 
dom consists  in  opening  our  eyes  to  the  facts  just  as  they 
are,  and  in  adjusting  ourselves  to  them  like  men." 

One  fact  is  that  the  cities  are  in  bad  condition — in  a  big, 


420  The  Evangelization  of  American  Cities 

mixed,  seething,  social,  industrial,  moral  turmoil,  boding  ill 
to  political  and  religious  institutions.  Sane  minds  ought  to 
see  it  with  both  eyes. 

A  second  fact  is  that  methods  hitherto  employed  have 
proved  inadequate.  It  is  only  with  Baptist  methods  that 
we  are  here  concerned,  and  of  these  we  have  a  right  to 
speak.  The  direct  responsibility  of  the  individual  believer, 
the  divine  call  of  the  gospel  minister,  the  independence  and 
authority  of  the  local  church  are  recognized  Baptist  tenets. 
These  tenets,  however,  not  otherwise  fortified,  while  they 
have  wrought  some  blessed  results  in  city  evangelization, 
have  scarcely  touched  the  stupendous  needs  which  loom 
before  us.  Few  laymen  have  felt  their  responsibility,  few 
clergymen  have  magnified  their  calling,  few  churches  have 
exercised  their  authority.  Insuperable  difficulties  seem  to 
inhere  in  these  independent  and  unrelated  essays.  And  so, 
to  remedy  these  defects,  but  in  no  wise  infringing  Baptist 
principle  and  polity,  local  missionary  societies  have  been 
organized.  But  here  again,  while  good  has  been  accom- 
plished, the  results  have  been  indifferent.  A  lack  of 
steadiness,  of  uniformity,  of  permanence,  has  weakened 
confidence  and  retarded  progress. 

Observe  the  stereotyped  Baptist  way  of  taking  a  great 
city  for  Christ.  An  individual  becomes  interested  in  the 
Jews,  hires  a  hall,  and  sets  a  converted  Israelite  to  lead 
the  venture.  A  band  of  disciples  fit  up  a  vacant  store,  and 
start  a  Sunday  school  in  a  neglected  neighborhood.  A 
church,  in  a  generous  or  niggardly  way,  sustains  a  mission 
or  two.  A  city  mission  society  pays  in  part  the  salaries  of  a 
few  pastors,  aids  in  building  a  few  chapels,  or  in  paying 
church  debts.  The  missionary  committee  of  the  association 
renders  a  little  assistance  here  and  there.  The  state  con- 
vention board  contributes  a  few  dollars  to  a  needy  church  or 


Stereotyped  Baptist  Evangelizing  421 

preacher.  The  Home  Mission  Society  makes  a  loan  from 
its  edifice  fund,  and  does  kindly  acts  to  Scandinavian  and 
German  Baptists.    And  so  the  work  goes  bravely  on. 

Can  we  wonder  that  hitherto  city  missions  have  gone  so 
haltingly?  Often  the  working  plan  has  been  defective. 
Often  the  workers  themselves  have  been  at  cross-purposes. 
Often  the  wrong  men  have  led  the  enterprise.  Often  the 
money  has  been  unwisely  used.  Often  some  prominent 
church  has  refused  to  co-operate.  Often  some  prominent 
pastor  has  dashed  cold  water  on  the  whole  thing.  It  seems 
little  short  of  insanity  or  idiocy  to  suppose  that  American 
cities,  the  strongholds  of  evil,  the  places  where  Satan's  seat 
is,  are  to  be  captured  by  such  maneuvers. 

The  one  fact  that  our  cities  are  on  the  way  to  ruin,  and 
the  other  fact  that  present  Christian  effort  will  never  stay 
their  downward  progress,  leads  inevitably  to  the  third  fact 
that  the  old  evangelizing  agencies  must  be  reinforced,  and 
that  new  and  mightier  agencies  must  be  summoned  into 
action.  As  things  are  now,  it  would  be  hard  to  convince  a 
sober  mind  that  we  are  making  a  winning  fight.  The  mar- 
velous growth  of  the  city,  far  surpassing  the  growth  of 
churches;  the  wage-earning  class,  constituting  half  the  in- 
habitants, indifferent  and  even  hostile;  the  alien  races,  out- 
numbering the  natives  sometimes  three  to  one,  scarcely 
touched  by  our  type  of  Christianity ;  the  deluded  religionists 
in  the  thrall  of  superstition  and  formality,  outnumbering 
evangelical  disciples,  beyond  the  pale  of  their  influence;  the 
congested  districts,  dense  with  souls,  where  the  gospel  is 
needed  most,  whence  the  churches  flee  away;  growing  out 
of  all  this  the  steady  increase  in  vice  and  crime,  and  over 
against  it  no  corresponding  increase  in  virtue  and  godly 
living — can  any  sober  man  account  this  victory! 

Only  in  part  does  the  responsibility  for  the  redemption 


422  The  Evangelization  of  American  Cities 

of  our  cities  devolve  upon  Baptists.  Perhaps  they  ought  to 
lead  the  militant  hosts  of  God's  elect,  but,  lead  or  follov^, 
God  will  not  hold  them  guiltless  if  they  fail  to  do  their  part. 
The  question  of  present  and  paramount  moment  is,  What  is 
their  part,  and  how^  are  they  to  do  it?  Carlyle  says,  "To 
know  the  new  era,  and  what  it  bids  us  do,  is  ever  the  sum 
of  knowledge  for  all  of  us."  But  who  of  us  all  can  claim 
such  wisdom?  Blessed  are  they  who  know  the  initial  step 
that  leads  to  that  "sum  of  knowledge,"  and  who  have  the 
grace  to  take  it.  On  this  occasion  and  in  this  discussion  we 
venture  to  suggest  no  more  than  this  initial  step.  Having 
taken  that,  God  will  reward  our  faith,  increase  our  knowl- 
edge, and  train  us  for  the  later  revelations  of  his  will. 

In  time  past,  under  stress  and  urgency,  our  churches 
have  turned  for  aid  and  guidance  to  their  national  society, 
and  have  always  found  in  her  the  help  they  sought.  Note 
their  employment  of  this  great  agency — an  agency  of  their 
own  creation — in  behalf  of  the  aboriginal  tribes,  the  emanci- 
pated slaves,  the  European  and  Asiatic  immigrants,  the 
newly  organized  and  dependent  native  and  foreign  churches, 
the  destitute  and  struggling  frontier  settlements.  At  this 
very  hour,  under  the  new  responsibilities  thrust  upon  the 
churches  by  the  outcome  of  the  war,  note  their  call  to  this 
same  agency  to  carry  the  gospel  in  their  behalf  to  the  victims 
of  Spanish  tyranny  and  superstition.  And  now  once 
more,  in  pursuance  of  this  same  policy,  there  comes  to  this 
same  agency  a  still  closer  and  more  pressing  call  to  under- 
take the  redemption  of  our  cities.  To  uplift  Chinamen, 
negroes,  Cubans,  and  aborigines  are  worthy  tasks,  and  for 
the  disposition  and  endeavor  let  us  grant  the  fullest  meed  of 
praise;  but  no  one  of  these  or  all  together  are  commensurate 
with  the  obligation  and  importance  of  uplifting  and  redeem- 
ing the  cities  of  this  republic.     Upon  American  Christians 


Evangelization  on  a  Bigger  Scale  423 

a  heavier  burden  and  a  graver  duty  were  never  laid.  Upon 
this  issue  hang  the  destiny  of  the  nation  and  the  moral 
progress  and  future  of  the  race.  Can  our  Baptist  churches, 
then,  do  a  wiser  thing,  and  dare  they  do  a  lesser  thing,  than 
summon  their  great  society  to  this  mighty  task? 

That  will  be  a  long  step  in  advance  when  American 
Baptists  call  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society 
to  this  leadership  and  control.  Reflection  will  persuade  us 
that  she  is  an  agent  pre-eminently  fitted  for  this  service. 
Once  thoroughly  committed,  and  weighted  with  the  responsi- 
bility, she  can  unify  our  forces — now  everything  is  at  sixes 
and  sevens;  can  harmonize  our  forces — now  variance  in 
purpose  and  method  mars  the  operation ;  can  economize  our 
forces — now  means  are  adjusted  to  ends  in  wasteful 
fashion;  can  combine  and  concentrate  our  forces — now 
scattered  and  misdirected  energies  miss  the  results  intended ; 
can  multiply  our  forces — now  the  men  and  churches  actually 
enlisted  are  few  indeed;  can  perpetuate  our  forces — now 
the  work  begun  today  is  often  set  aside  tomorrow. 

It  would  be  neither  wise  nor  kind  to  disparage  the  present 
earnest  and  heroic  workers  in  city  missions,  or  to  belittle 
the  results  they  have  achieved.  But  these  very  workers,  be- 
fore all  men,  deplore  the  existing  conditions,  and,  before  all 
men,  long  for  a  change  of  programme,  and  realize,  before 
all  men,  that  once  let  the  Home  Mission  Society  begin  the 
work  of  evangelization  in  downright  earnest,  then  wiser 
counsels  will  at  once  prevail;  the  work  will  move  more 
steadily  and  strongly ;  more  enthusiasm  will  be  engendered ; 
more  churches  will  drop  their  petty  and  hindering  jealousies ; 
more  men  and  stronger  will  pledge  their  services;  more 
money  will  be  contributed,  and  more  results  and  better  will 
be  achieved.  In  this  hour  of  sorest  need,  this  is  the  provi- 
dential call  that  our  national  society  shall  put  her  proved 


424  The  Evangelization  of  American  Cities 

ability,  stable  organization,  broad  experience,  splendid  re- 
nown, common-sense,  and  hard  cash  behind  and  into  this 
mighty  and  stupendous  effort  to  redeem  our  cities.  Then 
will  laymen,  pastors,  and  churches  listen,  follow,  and 
achieve. 

Grant  that  our  Baptist  people  have  the  wisdom  and 
grace  to  invoke  the  aid  of  the  Home  Mission  Society  and 
to  begin  in  earnest  the  evangelizing  of  our  cities,  then  a 
knowledge  of  urban  conditions  and  a  plan  of  operations 
suited  to  this  knowledge  are  two  primary  and  indispensable 
requisites  to  progress  and  success.  The  elementary  necessi- 
ties are  enlightenment  and  organization. 

ENLIGHTENMENT 

It  will  be  the  first  duty  of  the  society,  therefore,  to  fur- 
nish trustworthy,  well-arranged,  and  easily  comprehended 
information.  Today  Baptists  and  Baptist  churches  are 
steeped  in  ignorance.  Many  a  laymen  would  resent  this 
charge  who  does  not  know  the  number  of  his  ward  and 
could  not  tell  to  save  his  life  the  last-night  wanderings  of 
his  only  son.  He  knows  the  way  to  his  store  or  office  where 
he  rushes  business  through  the  week  and  the  way  to  his 
Baptist  church  where  he  worships  God  on  Sunday.  Many 
a  metropolitan  church  would  resent  this  charge  whose  aristo- 
cratic environment,  roll  of  membership,  schedule  of  activi- 
ties, and  pose  of  self-satisfied  contentment  preclude  the 
possibility  of  any  wide  and  fruitful  knowledge.  Laymen, 
pastors,  and  churches,  then,  may  well  begin  with  a  con- 
fession of  ignorance,  and  the  society  may  well  begin  with 
an  elementary  and  advancing  system  of  instruction,  with 
an  orderly  and  impressive  unfolding  of  the  entire  truth,  a 
wide  and  protracted  campaign  of  education.  That  Baptist 
brain  and  heart  may  receive  this  thorough  schooling,  the 


The  Need  of  Enlightenment  425 

society  must  teach  the  churches  the  actual  condition  of 
American  cities — their  rapid  and  continuous  growth,  their 
heterogeneous  populations,  the  segregation  of  their  social 
classes.  Here  poverty  and  misery,  injustice  and  oppression, 
vice  and  crime,  dissipation  and  irreligion,  are  found  in 
their  most  aggravated  and  repulsive  forms.  Tell  it  all  to 
the  churches.  Within  the  same  corporate  limits  are  the 
miser  and  the  pauper,  the  west  end  and  the  east  end, 
the  gutter-snipes  and  the  "four  hundred,"  the  gilded  sin  of 
the  club  and  the  tarnished  sin  of  the  groggery,  vice  in  rags 
and  shags  and  vice  in  velvet  gowns,  the  grinding  tyranny  of 
capital  and  the  industrial  slavery  of  labor,  aldermen  who 
sell  their  votes  and  syndicates  that  buy  them,  the  anarchists 
in  blouses  and  the  anarchists  in  broadcloth.  Tell  it  all  to 
the  churches.  Here  exist  sordid  greed  of  gold,  political 
corruption,  industrial  tyranny,  social  inequality,  polished 
and  vulgar  wickedness,  which  strain  municipal  and  national 
bonds  to  the  point  of  breaking — presaging  industrial  and 
social  revolution,  involving  religion  and  government  alike 
in  the  common  ruin.  Tell  it  all  to  the  churches.  It  is  the 
first  business  of  the  society  to  make  the  Baptist  public  under- 
stand the  situation.  Tell  the  truth ;  lay  bare  the  facts ;  turn 
on  the  light;  neither  exaggerate  nor  falsify;  despise  all 
cant;  do  all  in  love;  discharge  the  whole,  hard  duty  in  a 
way  so  clean  and  straight  that  every  Baptist  intellect  shall 
see  its  truth  and  every  Baptist  conscience  shall  feel  its  force. 
Having  shown  the  churches  what  the  city  really  is,  the 
society  must  next  show  them  what  the  city  really  needs. 
Any  power  which  inheres  merely  in  the  natural  and  human 
forms  of  civilization  can  never  meet  the  urgencies  of  the 
case.  After  better  sanitation,  better  housing  for  the  poor, 
better  water-  and  food-supply,  better  systems  of  education, 
better  boards  of  aldermen,  all  good  citizens  should  ever 


426  The  Evangelization  of  American  Cities 

strive,  but  these  can  never  meet  the  deepest  needs  nor  fur- 
nish adequate  safeguards  against  impending  peril.  All  that 
goes  under  the  name  of  law,  science,  commerce,  culture, 
every  city  needs,  but  these  never  braced  any  city  against  an 
ultimate  weakening  and  downfall.  We  must  look  elsewhere, 
therefore,  for  the  forces  which  are  to  conserve  the  city's 
life.  The  only  hope  lies  in  the  conserving  power  of  Christ's 
religion.  If  the  cities  are  to  last,  their  foundations  must  be 
laid  in  Bible  principle  and  verity.  The  eternal  and  vital 
forces  of  God's  own  New  Testament  truth  must  inspire  and 
direct  municipal  progress  and  development,  or  the  move- 
ment must  end  in  decay  and  death.  If  the  city  is  ever  saved 
the  gospel  alone  can  save  it.  All  this  the  society  must  show 
to  the  churches  and  make  it  as  clear  as  an  axiom  of  mathe- 
matics. 

In  further  pursuit  of  this  policy,  it  will  likewise  be  the 
duty  of  the  society,  by  way  of  encouragement,  to  point  out 
and  explain  the  manifold  Christian  agencies  which  are 
already  in  successful  operation  looking  to  the  betterment  of 
the  city.  Every  larger  town  is  the  inviting  field  of  these 
methodized  and  organized  evangelizing  activities.  These 
are  the  special  instrumentalities  and  auxiliaries  which  the 
church  has  created  and  inspired  for  the  pushing  of  its  mis- 
sionary and  reformatory  enterprises.  Their  name  is  legion, 
and  they  all  deserve  a  place  in  the  knowledge,  sympathy,  and 
assistance  of  Christian  people,  and  therefore  a  place  in  that 
programme  of  education  which  sets  forth  what  the  city 
really  is  and  needs  and  what  is  being  done  in  its  behalf. 

Lastly,  the  most  important  and  difficult  function  of  the 
society  will  be  to  teach  the  churches  that  there  are  stores 
of  energy  in  the  realm  of  grace  quite  as  immeasurable  and 
irresistible  as  in  the  realm  of  nature.  God's  world  of 
spiritual   forces  is  not  inferior  to  his  world  of  material 


The  Divine  Resources  Available  427 

forces.  Let  the  same  exact  and  patient  labor  be  bestowed 
on  the  discovery  of  his  thought  in  the  domain  of  spirit  as  is 
bestowed  in  the  domains  of  mind  and  matter,  and  corre- 
sponding blessed  results  will  follow.  Put  heavenly  scientists 
on  the  stretch  for  the  secrets  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
as  earthly  scientists  are  on  the  stretch  for  the  secrets  of  the 
kingdom  of  earth,  and  the  laboratory  of  the  church  will 
yield  as  rich  rewards  as  the  laboratory  of  the  school.  Admit 
that  there  is  new  truth  to  break  forth  from  the  word  of 
God  as  new  truth  is  all  the  time  breaking  forth  from  the 
works  of  God,  and  hail  and  bless  the  man  who  discovers  a 
new  spiritual  truth  or  duty  as  you  hail  or  bless  the  dis- 
coverer of  X-rays  or  wireless  telegraphy,  and  this  very  atti- 
tude of  mind  will  create  a  whole  race  of  tireless  workers 
whose  sole  ambition  will  be  to  reveal  the  Father's  mind 
more  perfectly.  There  are  undeveloped  resources  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  which  the  church  has  never  yet  discovered 
and  so  of  course  has  never  utilized.  It  is  the  business  of 
the  society  to  show  the  churches  the  immeasurable  stores 
of  uplifting  and  saving  power  which  lie  unknown  and  hence 
unemployed  in  the  truth  and  word  and  Son  and  Spirit  and 
providence  of  God.  If  the  darkness  and  sin  in  the  city 
are  well-nigh  infinite,  here  are  light  and  grace  which  are 
altogether  so.  "Greater  is  he  that  is  in  you  than  he  that  is 
in  the  world."  The  conquest  of  the  city  is  not  impossible. 
Once  disclose  to  the  hesitating  church  the  plenitude  of  the 
divine  power,  and  the  militant  host  of  God's  elect  will  march 
to  speedy  victory. 

ORGANIZAmON 

I  named  enlightenment  and  organization  as  the  two  pri- 
mary and  indispensable  requisites  to  progress  and  success. 
Coetaneous  with  the  campaign  of  education,  the  organiza- 


428  The  Evangelization  oj  American  Cities 

tion  of  our  denominational  forces  is  an  indispensable  con- 
dition of  progress  and  success.  Today,  in  all  our  great 
municipalities,  for  purposes  of  united  and  efficient  action, 
our  Baptist  army  is  well-nigh  a  mob.  An  imminent  need  is 
that  the  host  shall  be  marshaled,  officered,  disciplined,  and 
drilled,  and  that  a  definite  plan  of  campaign  shall  be  out- 
lined and  projected.  We  have  numbers,  indeed,  but  they 
resemble  the  state  militia,  out  of  which  an  efficient  army 
could  be  developed,  but  which  in  fact  is  ignorant  of  the 
manual  of  arms,  and  knows  nothing  of  camp  discipline  and 
actual  service.  This  raw  material  the  Home  Mission  Society 
must  call  into  camp,  uniform  and  provision,  break  into  com- 
panies and  regiments,  officer  and  drill,  and  transform  from 
new  recruits  into  hardened  and  disciplined  soldiers.  An 
army  thus  gathered  and  equipped,  the  society  must  deter- 
mine the  time,  place,  and  order  of  attack,  and  see  that  no 
ounce  of  powder  is  wasted,  that  no  life  is  needlessly  sacri- 
ficed, that  the  greatest  possible  results  attend  the  wisest 
possible  expenditure  of  force. 

Dropping  the  military  figure,  I  say  that  our  most  urgent 
present  necessity,  along  with  enlightenment,  is  organization. 
This  organization,  in  my  judgment,  must,  first  of  all,  be 
projected  on  large  lines.  About  it  there  must  be  nothing 
narrow  and  petty.  We  live  in  an  age  of  great  undertakings, 
an  age  of  combinations,  syndicates,  trusts,  capital  leaguing 
itself  with  capital,  corporation  with  corporation,  labor  with 
labor — the  individual  lost  in  the  mass,  and  the  single  laborer 
and  the  small  tradesman  driven  to  the  wall — millions  of 
men  forming  a  compact  union,  millions  of  money  thrown 
into  a  common  pool.  Here  is  a  lesson  for  the  Christian 
church :  In  union  there  is  strength.  Individual  local  inter- 
ests must  merge  themselves  in  the  larger  cause  and  thereby 
share  in  the  larger  profits.     Our  separate,   disconnected 


The  Need  0}  Efficient  Organization  429 

Baptist  churches  will  never  evangelize  the  cities.  Forever 
and  forever  their  individualistic  efforts  will  be  sporadic, 
unrelated,  ephemeral,  sometimes  conflicting,  always  only- 
half  successful.  Pastors  come  and  go,  churches  wax  and 
wane,  and  only  an  organization  having  something  of  the 
largeness,  unity,  and  permanence  of  the  city  itself  can  ever 
cope  successfully  with  its  giant  and  growing  evils. 

In  the  second  place,  this  large  organization  must  be  ably 
officered.  Just  as  the  present-day  colossal  corporate  in- 
terests of  whatever  sort  are  headed  by  men  of  commanding- 
personality,  corresponding  to  the  Grants  and  Lees  in  the 
field  of  arms  and  the  Bismarcks  and  Gladstones  in  the  field 
of  diplomacy,  just  so  the  combined,  corporated  activities  of 
our  Baptist  churches,  looking  to  city  evangelization,  must 
be  under  an  inspiration  and  leadership  of  consummate 
ability.  Mediocrity  was  never  in  less  demand.  Small  men 
are  worse  than  useless.  They  can  never  take  in  the  situa- 
tion, nor  command  the  respect  of  Christian  intelligence,  nor 
call  out  the  latent  power  of  the  churches,  nor  outline  a 
worthy  plan  of  operations,  nor  bring  any  large  enter- 
prise to  a  successful  issue.  The  hour  calls  for  leaders  whose 
talent  borders  close  on  genius.  Note  in  our  cities  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  modern  civilization,  the  leaders  in  news- 
papers, schools,  banks,  railroads,  commerce,  manufacture, 
the  alert,  persistent,  and  tireless  workers  who  have  made 
possible  and  actual  the  astounding  material  advancement  of 
the  present  age.  Men  of  like  brain  and  genius,  of  like 
powers  of  discovery  and  creation,  are  needed  by  the  churches 
to  methodize  and  energize  their  religious  operations.  Small, 
weak  men  can  only  belittle  and  destroy. 

In  the  third  place,  our  national  society  must  offer  the 
churches  an  organization  thoroughly  modern  in  its  methods 
of  working.     In  recent  times  man's  ways  of  doing  things 


43°  The  Evangelization  of  American  Cities 

have  wholly  changed.  Wooden  plows,  ox  teams,  tallow  dips, 
and  all  their  accompaniments  belong  to  an  antiquated  realm, 
for  which  no  room  is  left  in  the  world  we  live  in.  The  new 
age — mechanical,  industrial,  commercial,  educational,  socio- 
logical— has  completely  revolutionized  the  life  of  the  race. 
The  new  machinery  which  doubles  the  manufacturing  power 
of  the  world  every  seven  years ;  steam  and  electricity  which 
are  annihilating  time,  space,  darkness,  and  cold ;  the  new 
division  of  labor  which  runs  the  separate  parts  of  a  lady's 
slipper  through  sixty  pairs  of  hands  before  it  is  ready  for 
its  wearer's  foot;  the  new  discoveries,  inventions,  sciences, 
appliances — these  changed  conditions  in  the  lives  of  the 
civilized  races  render  it  utterly  impossible  to  save  the  cities 
by  the  old  stage-coach  and  spinning-wheel  methods.  If 
Christian  people  will  not  take  on  the  new  spirit,  nor  adjust 
themselves  to  their  new  environment,  nor  part  company 
with  their  antiquated  ways,  they  will  be  simply  thrust  aside 
in  the  onward  movement  of  the  human  race.  As  Bishop 
Potter  of  New  York  has  said : 

At  such  a  time,  for  the  church  of  God  to  sit  still  and  be  content 
with  theories  of  its  duty  outlawed  by  time,  and  long  ago  demonstrated 
to  be  grotesquely  inadequate  to  the  demands  of  a  living  situation, 
this  is  to  deserve  the  scorn  of  men  and  the  curse  of  God. 

In  its  organization  of  our  Baptist  forces  for  city  evange- 
lization, one  chief  duty  of  the  Home  Mission  Society  will  be 
so  to  modernize  our  methods  of  operation  as  to  bring  them 
into  up-to-date  relations  with  methods  everywhere  else  pre- 
vailing. 

In  the  last  place,  the  most  difficult  task  of  all  will  be  so 
to  organize  the  work  as  to  reduce  waste  and  loss  to  the 
minimum.  Science  has  demonstrated  the  correlation  and 
conservation  of  forces.  In  nature's  laboratory  nothing  is 
ever  wasted.    Under  the  natural,  scientific  principles  which 


The  Economic  Use  oj  Resources  431 

dominate  modern  business  operations  the  profit  accrues  from 
what  was  formerly  thrown  away.  Today  the  science  of 
business  consists  in  gathering  up  the  fragments.  We  natur- 
ally think  of  a  packing-house  as  the  place  where  meat  is  pre- 
pared for  the  butcher's  stall,  but  an  ox  serves  a  vast  number 
of  utilities  of  which  its  meat  is  only  one.  Literally  every 
part  and  particle  of  the  animal  is  transformed  into  some 
useful  product,  and  no  part  is  turned  to  waste.  Complete 
utilization  is  the  goal  actually  reached,  the  list  of  utilities 
running  up  into  no  less  than  2,700  different  manufactured 
products,  each  in  its  own  way  filling  some  imperative  want 
of  humanity.  That  each  part  of  an  ox  may  be  carried  to  its 
utmost  economic  value,  millions  of  capital  are  turned  into 
these  saving,  remunerative  channels. 

This  economic  utilization  which  characterizes  all  the 
processes  of  nature,  and  all  the  operations  of  man  so  far  as 
he  follows  the  laws  of  nature,  the  Christian  church  needs  to 
carry  over  into  the  realm  of  grace.  In  the  kingdom  of 
nature  all  is  saved ;  in  the  kingdom  of  grace  most  is  wasted. 
In  the  economic  world  the  forces  are  mostly  conserved;  in 
the  religious  world  they  are  mostly  dissipated.  The  most 
damning  charge  that  can  be  brought  against  the  Christian 
church  is  its  prodigal,  criminal  waste.  In  exactly  this  our 
national  society  faces  its  hardest  problem. 

Granted  that  our  Baptist  people  have  the  wisdom  and 
grace  to  invoke  the  aid  of  the  Home  Mission  Society  and  to 
begin  in  earnest  the  evangelizing  of  our  cities,  then,  if  the 
first  duty  of  the  society  is  enlightenment,  the  second  duty, 
no  less  urgent,  is  organization — an  organization  that  shall 
conserve  and  utilize  the  Baptist  power  now  running  to 
waste;  an  organization  whose  methods  and  machinery 
employ  the  newest  processes  and  patents;  an  organization 
whose  leaders  are  the  peers  of  railroad  magnates  and  com- 


432  The  Evangelization  of  American  Cities 

mercial  kings  in  insight  and  foresight,  in  business  sagacity, 
in  executive  talent,  and  who  are  vastly  their  superiors  in 
heavenly  wisdom  and  enthusiasm;  an  organization  whose 
largeness  in  the  scope  of  its  operations  resembles  those  vast 
business  corporations  which  control  the  products  and  in- 
dustries of  the  land.  Our  cities  will  be  evangelized  when  we 
enter  into  large  operations,  under  masterful  leaders,  using 
the  most  modern  appliances,  and  utilizing  to  the  utmost  the 
resources  at  our  disposal. 


XVII 
THE  BAPTIST  OUTLOOK 


XVII 
THE  BAPTIST  OUTLOOK  ^ 

In  time  past  marked  changes  have  occurred  in  the  beHefs 
and  practices  of  American  Baptists.  In  time  present 
changes  more  rapid  and  radical  are  taking  place.  In  time 
future  Baptists  will  differ  from  us  even  more  than  we  differ 
from  our  fathers. 

This  shifting  of  denominational  position  creates  among 
our  people  conflicting  opinions.  Some  see  in  it  a  departure 
from  New  Testament  ideals,  others  a  return  to  them.  With 
some  it  betokens  retrogression,  with  others  progress.  Some 
dare  not  even  touch  the  Bible  and  are  sure  it  is  about  to  be 
injured;  others  dare  not  let  it  alone  and  are  equally  sure 
it  is  about  to  get  fresh  vigor  and  strength.  Some  fear  the 
foundations  are  being  removed,  others  are  confident  they 
are  being  settled.  Some  turn  to  the  past  and  would  hold 
back,  others  hail  the  future  and  would  push  ahead. 

These  diverse  views  are  breaking  our  Baptist  brother- 
hood into  parties.  Already  the  line  of  separation  is  becoming 
so  definite  and  fixed  that  preachers  and  churches  are  array- 
ing themselves  or  being  arrayed  on  one  side  or  the  other. 
Party  names  are  being  given  or  assumed.  "Conservative" 
and  "Progressive"  are  beginning  to  be  so  employed.  Per- 
haps these  terms  will  remain.  Neither  is  a  term  of  reproach. 
Each  stands  for  a  great  and  even  necessary  idea. 

We  shall  be  helped  in  presaging  the  future  of  our  de- 
nomination by  noting  some  points  in  which  conservative  and 

*  From   The  Standard,  February   27,   1897. 

435 


436  The  Baptist  Outlook 

progressive  Baptists  agree  and  some  points  in  which  they 
differ. 

BAPTISTS  AGREE 

Party  lines  do  not  divide  us,  and  are  not  likely  to,  on 
what  are  commonly  accepted  as  our  distinctive  principles. 
All  Baptists  believe  and  will  probably  continue  to  believe  in 
immersion,  believers'  baptism,  a  regenerate  church  member- 
ship, the  memorial  character  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  local 
church  independency,  separation  of  church  and  state,  soul- 
liberty.  Perhaps  increasing  numbers  are  and  will  be  less 
tenacious  of  the  logical  order  of  the  ordinances  than  form- 
erly. Perhaps  increasing  numbers  are  not  positively  sure  of 
the  binding  authority  of  our  simple,  pure,  congregational 
government.  However  evident  in  the  New  Testament  writ- 
ings and  however  suited  to  the  first  century,  it  may  be  less 
suited  to  the  twentieth,  and  there  is  no  explicit  command. 
Perhaps  increasing  numbers  suspect  that  while  in  theory  the 
Baptists  are  stout  believers  in  soul-liberty  there  is  no  denomi- 
nation harder  on  its  members  if  they  are  rash  enough  to 
exercise  it.  With  these  slight  modifications  all  Baptists  see 
eye  to  eye,  and  are  likely  to,  on  our  distinctive  principles. 
They  will  be  held  as  intelligently  and  tenaciously  in  the 
future  as  in  the  past,  only  less  belligerently,  with  less  acri- 
mony, emphasis  being  laid  on  points  of  agreement  with  other 
denominations  more  than  on  points  of  difference. 

Party  lines  do  not  divide  us,  and  are  not  likely  to,  on 
the  great  fundamental,  saving,  and  moral  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity. Those  truths  which  lie  under  all  religion,  those  in 
which  consists  the  saving  efficacy  of  the  gospel,  those  which 
give  breath  and  form  to  a  life  pleasing  to  God,  all  Baptists 
heartily  accept  and  defend.  Over  the  central  and  vital  prin- 
ciples of  the  Christian  religion,  the  experimental  accept- 


Baptists  Agree  and  Disagree  437 

ance  of  which  renews  the  soul  and  the  ethical  outworkings 
of  which  render  the  renewed  life  worthy  and  useful,  Baptists 
have  never  entered  into  controversy.  They  hold  a  common 
faith  concerning  the  basal  verities  of  our  religion,  and  speak 
a  common  language  concerning  its  graces,  duties,  and  re- 
wards. When  all  non-essentials  are  stripped  away  and  all 
is  reduced  to  original  simplicity  and  necessity.  Baptists,  in 
the  future  as  in  the  past,  will  confess  a  common  creed.  They 
have  never  questioned  any  primary,  saving,  and  morally 
essential  truth  of  the  gospel,  and  they  show  no  disposition 
to  do  so.  We  may  believe,  therefore,  that  Baptists  will 
never  divide  on  those  distinctive  principles  which  separate 
them  from  other  communions,  nor  on  those  simple,  ultimate, 
evangelical  verities  which  unite  them  with  all  true  believers. 

BAPTISTS  DISAGREE 

Troubles  begin  to  appear,  and  divisive  opinions  to  arise 
when  we  enter  the  domain  of  metaphysics,  of  speculative 
philosophy,  of  historical  inquiry,  of  dogmatic  theology,  of 
scientific  discovery,  of  literary  criticism.  Here  the  Baptists 
are  no  longer  one.  In  our  ranks  the  division  is  less  appar- 
ent than  in  some  other  denominations,  but  it  is  no  less  real. 
The  lines  are  being  drawn  and  the  party  spirit  is  gaining 
strength.  Already  the  things  in  which  we  disagree  are  being 
more  talked  about  and  emphasized  than  those  greater  things 
in  which  we  stand  together.  Talk  and  emphasis  are  passing 
on  to  criticism  and  censure.  In  the  near  future  every  intelli- 
gent layman  and  minister  will  place  himself  or  be  placed 
in  one  or  other  of  two  well-defined  parties.  Even  now  the 
marks  are  plain  enough  for  descriptive  purposes.  The  very 
names  assumed  or  imposed,  which  begin  to  be  heard,  are  in 
part  descriptive. 


43^  The  Baptist  Outlook 

THE  CONSERVATIVES 

The  Conservatives  are  the  old  party.  They  stand  for 
the  old  beliefs  and  practices.  They  constitute  a  large  body 
of  brethren  who  wish  things  to  remain  about  as  they  have 
been  and  are.  We  hear  them  saying:  "The  opinions  we 
cherish,  and  in  the  strength  of  which  we  have  lived,  were 
bequeathed  to  us  by  spiritual  fathers  who  loved  God  and 
served  their  generation,  and  ought  by  us  to  be  handed  down 
to  our  sons,  who,  in  turn,  should  pass  them  on  to  children's 
children.  Opinions  tested  by  time,  entertained  by  the  wisest 
and  best  of  men,  taught  us  and,  in  turn,  taught  by  us  in 
home  and  church  and  school,  only  recently  called  in  ques- 
tion by  a  few  zealots  eager  for  innovation  and  change; 
opinions  such  as  these  we  shall  still  maintain  and  defend." 
A  generation  ago  this  Conservative  party  embraced  nearly 
the  entire  Baptist  brotherhood.  There  was  only  here  and 
there  an  erratic,  sporadic  case  of  deviation  from  the  recog- 
nized standards.  Probably  now  the  party  enrols  the  great 
majority  of  American  Baptists. 

THE  PROGRESSIVES 

The  Progressives  are  the  new  party.  Not  long  ago  they, 
too,  were  Conservatives,  but  they  have  been  touched  by  influ- 
ences which  have  thrown  them  out  of  sympathy  with  the  old 
order  of  things.  These  Baptists  with  new  ideas,  though  not 
as  numerous  as  Baptists  of  the  old  type,  seem  to  be  increas- 
ing, and  already  constitute  a  fair  body  of  brethren  who  are 
not  at  all  content  to  have  things  remain  as  they  were  and 
are.  This  discontent  has  been  created  and  nourished  by  the 
new  thought  that  has  spread  abroad  since  the  beginning  of 
the  last  half  of  the  present  century.  The  marvelous  prog- 
ress in  the  domain  of  natural  and  physical  science,  the 


The  Progressives  439 

recently  promulgated  theories  of  evolution,  the  philosophical 
and  theological  speculations  imported  from  Germany,  the 
reconstructed  apologetical  literature  adapted  to  present-day 
exigencies,  the  discoveries  in  the  ruins  of  ancient  oriental 
dynasties,  the  studies  in  comparative  philology  and  in  com- 
parative religion,  the  new  way  of  conceiving  and  writing 
history,  the  new  canons  of  literary  criticism,  the  new  out- 
look in  the  realms  of  ethics,  the  new  science  of  sociology  and 
the  new  humanitarian  activities — this  new  world  of  new 
thought  in  the  midst  of  which  we  are  living  has  profoundly 
moved  some  of  our  Baptist  brothers.  It  has  not  merely 
changed  their  point  of  view  and  given  them  a  new  center  of 
observation,  it  has  well-nigh  revolutionized  the  very  sub- 
stance of  their  thinking.  They  do  not  look  at  things  as  they 
once  did.  Mere  modification  of  conception  has  passed  over 
to  radical  transformation.  They  are  not  able  to  analyze  the 
process  by  which  this  change  has  come  about.  It  certainly 
has  not  been  in  the  main  by  a  conscious,  deliberate  dropping 
of  old  ideas,  but  rather  in  the  main  by  an  unconscious  pass- 
ing over  into  a  new  world  in  which  the  old  ideas  cannot  sur- 
vive. Notions  for  which  they  would  once  have  laid  down 
their  lives  are  notions  for  which  they  would  not  now  lift  a 
finger.  They  have  either  ceased  to  be  true  to  them  or  have 
lost  their  interest  and  importance.  The  whole  subject  of 
religion  is  now  looked  upon  in  the  light  of  the  new  learning. 
There  is  not  a  time-honored  belief  which  must  not  submit 
itself  to  fresh  scrutiny.  In  the  ecumenical  creeds  we  have 
not  the  final  word  on  the  points  of  which  they  treat.  The 
doctrinal  statements  of  the  Westminster  divines  need  re- 
vision. The  five  points  of  Calvinism  are  not  as  delightfully 
clear  and  sure  and  comforting  as  they  once  seemed.  Indeed, 
Calvinism,  by  a  process  of  dilution,  seems  likely  to  weaken 
itself  out  of  the  world.     Mediaevalism  and  traditionalism 


440  The  Baptist  Outlook 

can  no  longer  command  respect  and  assent  simply  because 
they  are  wrinkled  and  gray. 

The  Progressives,  living  in  this  new  world  of  new 
thought,  give  a  new  statement  or  a  new  emphasis  to  nearly 
every  article  of  religion.  They  have  a  new  conception  of 
God,  of  his  goodness  and  glory.  His  sheer  sovereignty 
and  decrees  fall  into  the  background,  and  his  moral  excel- 
lence, beauty,  and  common  Fatherhood  fill  the  vision.  They 
have  a  new  conception  of  Christ  as  the  express  image  of  his 
Father's  person  and  the  perfect  revelation  of  his  thought 
and  love;  and  of  Christ's  work  in  man's  behalf  as  designed 
to  meet  the  necessities  and  aspirations  of  his  entire  being — 
body,  mind,  soul — for  time  and  eternity,  in  earth  and  in 
heaven.  They  have  a  new  conception  of  man,  of  his  crea- 
tion in  God's  image,  and  his  boundless  possibiHties  of  growth 
in  the  likeness  of  his  Creator,  Father,  and  Savior.  They 
have  a  new  conception  of  the  Bible.  They  have  ceased  to 
believe  that  it  was  dictated  in  a  mechanical  way,  and  that  its 
chief  design  was  to  furnish  proof -texts  in  polemical  the- 
ology. They  have  parted  with  many  of  the  traditional 
notions  of  the  authorship,  structure,  and  purpose  of  the 
sacred  books.  They  maintain  that  no  theory  of  inspiration 
has  yet  been  advanced  which  covers  the  facts,  and  that  their 
reconstructed  Bible  is  a  book  more  human  and  divine,  more 
consistent  and  rational,  more  helpful  and  inspiring  than  the 
traditional  volume.  Living  in  this  new,  modern,  up-to-date 
world,  they  think  their  view  of  all  truth  is  broader,  pro- 
founder,  more  in  accord  with  fact,  more  soul-satisfying, 
more  helpful  to  man,  and  more  honoring  to  God. 

So  it  has  come  to  pass  in  our  denomination  that  we  have 
or  are  about  to  have  two  parties  differing  widely  in  their 
views  of  the  Bible,  and  on  many  of  the  dogmas  of  specu- 
lative theology,  yet  claiming  to  be  loyal  Baptists,  and  pro- 


Will  They  Fight  or  Be  Gracious?  441 

fessing  their  distinctive  principles,  and  agreeing  perfectly 
on  the  really  central  and  vital  things  of  revealed  religion — 
the  fundamental,  saving,  and  ethical  truths  of  the  Christian 
system. 

WILL  THEY  FIGHT? 

In  presaging  the  future  of  our  denomination,  the  su- 
preme question  is,  What  is  to  be  the  attitude  of  these  parties 
toward  each  other?  If  they  are  to  fight,  ostracize,  unde- 
nominationalize  each  other,  then  presently  Conservatives 
and  Progressives  will  not  be  on  speaking  terms.  If  the  old 
and  the  new  are  to  fight  it  will  be  a  fight  all  along  the  line, 
among  pastors,  between  schools,  in  churches,  associations, 
conventions,  national  societies.  It  will  extend  to  our  young 
people,  seminaries,  mission  fields,  religious  press,  to  all  our 
organized  denominational  activities.  Many  will  tire  of  the 
conflict  and  pass  over  to  other  more  strait-laced  or  liberal 
communions,  or  will  try  to  propagate  their  views  by  inde- 
pendent movements.  Old  and  new  will  wage  a  war  of 
extermination,  and  neither  will  live  to  gain  the  satisfaction 
of  having  destroyed  the  other.  If  both  parties  are  to  invite 
and  keep  up  a  satanic  spirit  Satan  will  deservedly  get  them 
both  in  the  end,  and,  perforce,  the  denomination  will  go  to 
the  devil. 

WILL  THEY  BE  GRACIOUS  TO  EACH  OTHER? 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  evil  spirit  is  exorcised,  and  a 
Christly  spirit  takes  its  place,  then  the  two  parties  can  each 
help  the  other  and  both  can  help  the  denomination.  This 
good  spirit  will  lead  each  party  to  see  that  in  the  other  the 
real  leaders,  pastors,  teachers,  intelligent  laymen,  are  sin- 
cere Christians,  holding  the  distinctive  Baptist  tenets, 
pledged  to  the  essentials  of  evangelical  religion,  anxious  to 
have  God  honored,  souls  saved,  the  church  established,  and 


442  The  Baptist  Outlook 

Christ's  kingdom  widened.  Of  intelligence,  unsullied 
character,  the  spirit  of  inquiry,  love  of  truth,  fair  minded- 
ness,  neither  party  has  the  monopoly. 

This  good  spirit  will  lead  each  party  to  say,  the  truth 
has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  fullest  inquiry.  It  can  never 
suffer  by  examination.  Therefore  the  truth  we  hold  the 
other  party  can  turn  bottom  side  up  and  inside  out,  search 
it,  scrutinize  and  analyze  it,  try  it  to  their  heart's  content 
and  their  wit's  end.  If  it  is  really  truth,  they  have  no  power 
to  destroy  it.  No  crucible  can  be  hot  enough  to  injure  gold. 
If,  perchance,  dross  is  there,  let  the  fires  burn  it  out. 

This  good  spirit  will  lead  each  party  to  vie  with  the 
other  in  the  exercise  of  a  tolerant  temper.  The  Baptists 
have  taught  the  other  denominations  and  the  Christian 
world  what  toleration  is,  and  now  we  will  not  violate  the 
letter  and  spirit  of  it  against  our  own  brethren.  In  every 
decade  of  our  history  we  have  suffered  in  some  part  of  the 
world  from  the  intolerant  spirit  of  the  professed  disciples 
of  Christ.  We  have  felt  the  injustice  of  it.  We  have  pro- 
tested against  the  iniquity  of  it.  We  have  warned  our 
adversaries  that  they  could  never  win  their  cause  by  the 
exercise  of  it.  We  have  by  unyielding  persistence  and  patient 
suffering  gained  the  victory  over  it.  Today  we  stand  before 
the  world  as  the  triumphant  champions  and  defenders  of 
toleration;  and  today  we  will  not  belie  our  antecedents  by 
turning  with  intolerant  zeal  against  our  own  brethren  who 
happen  to  be  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  poorer  theologians 
than  ourselves. 

This  good  spirit  will  lead  both  parties  to  confess  that 
truth  never  emerges  except  by  agitation.  What  the  theo- 
logical world  is  always  needing  is  a  campaign  of  education. 
Bring  the  conflicting  opinions  into  the  arena  of  open  debate. 
Give  all  sides  a  fair  hearing.    Investigate  as  fully  and  freely 


Both  Parties  Are  Needed  443 

and  deeply  as  you  please,  and  bring  the  result  to  public 
notice.  The  time  is  past  for  repression,  which  will  only 
beget  suspicion  which  in  time  will  harden  into  distrust  and 
disbelief.  Up  with  it  and  out  with  it.  Then  let  objections 
reasonably  urged  be  given  a  fair  hearing  and  be  reasonably 
met.  The  distractions  created  by  divided  opinions  are  only 
temporary,  the  resultant  good  is  permanent.  Therefore  let 
opposing  notions  grapple.  The  issue  cannot  be  doubtful. 
Free  discussion  is  the  life  of  knowledge  and  the  death  of 
falsehood. 

When  this  good  spirit  leads  each  party  to  recognize  the 
honesty  and  ability  of  the  other,  leads  each  party  believing 
that  truth  is  indestructible  freely  to  offer  it  for  testing, 
leads  neither  party  to  crush  the  other  by  tortures  of  the 
inquisition,  leads  both  parties  plainly  to  see  that  only  as 
differing  views  grapple  with  each  other  is  there  any  chance 
for  truth  to  gain  a  victory,  then  under  the  tuition  of  this 
good  spirit,  each  party  will  help  the  other  and  both  will  help 
the  denomination.  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  our  people  can 
well  get  on  without  the  aid  of  both.  Both  seem  essential  to 
our  best  advancement,  only  providing  that  both  are  inspired 
and  controlled  by  a  worthy  spirit.  In  general  the  Conserva- 
tives are  needed  to  keep  the  Progressives  from  going  too 
fast,  and  the  latter  are  needed  to  keep  the  former  from 
standing  still,  and  under  this  alternating  check  and  spur  we 
may  confidently  look  for  healthful  progress. 

A  BETTER  BIBLE 

This  friendly  contention  of  Conservatives  and  Progres- 
sives will  give  us  a  better  Bible  and  a  better  understanding 
of  it.  So  long  as  the  original  text  and  the  transla- 
tion of  it  are  not  the  best  the  most  enlightened  scholarship 
can  give,  there  still  remains  room  for  improvement.  So  long 


444  The  Baptist  Outlook 

as  the  date,  authorship,  structure,  purpose,  and  interpreta- 
tion of  a  sacred  writing  are  left  in  an  obscurity  which 
enlightened  scholarship  might  clear  away,  a  better  under- 
standing of  the  Word  is  our  privilege  and  duty.  "The  Bible 
is  what  the  Bible  means,  and  not  what  inaccurate  transla- 
tions and  misinterpretations  make  it  seem  to  mean."  The 
Bible  is  what  the  Bible  really  is,  and  not  what  men  pledged 
to  a  preconception  have  tried  to  force  it  to  be.  The  Book 
as  a  whole,  who  made  it,  and  how  he  made  it,  and  why  he 
made  it,  exactly  how  it  came  into  the  world,  and  what  it  is 
here  for,  are  topics  in  debate  on  which  the  Progressives 
should  prod  the  Conservatives  out  of  their  inertia,  and  on 
which  the  Conservatives  should  check  the  undue  haste  of 
the  Progressives.  This  enlightened  criticism  and  counter- 
criticism  will  give  the  Baptists  of  the  future  a  better  Bible 
and  a  better  understanding  of  it  than  Baptists  today  enjoy. 

A  BETTER  THEOLOGY 

The  Baptists  of  the  future  are  to  have  a  much  better 
theology  than  we  now  possess.  It  was  never  in  more  sorry 
plight  than  it  is  today.  It  has  left  the  old  positions  and  has 
not  yet  reached  the  new.  Once  Baptists  felt  safe  and  happy 
in  the  rigid  inclosures  erected  by  that  "godly,  learned  man, 
John  Calvin."  Once  the  Westminster  Confession  furnished 
them  the  doctrinal  formula  which  sheltered  and  nourished 
their  souls.  Once  Andrew  Fuller's  reconstructed  and  mod- 
erated Calvinism  seemed  exactly  to  meet  the  necessities  of 
the  case.  Thirty,  twenty,  fifteen  years  ago  our  seminaries 
served  out  a  theology  which  some  of  the  conservative  pupils 
are  disposed  still  to  retain,  but  which  to  their  progressive 
teachers  has  become  obsolescent.  The  theology  of  the 
future  may  not  be  the  "new  theology"  of  today,  but  it  will 
be  a  vast  improvement  on  the  old  theology  of  yesterday.    It 


A  Better  Education  and  Ecclesiasticism  445 

will  not  revolve  around  metaphysical  abstractions  nor  deal 
largely  in  proofless  and  profitless  fictions.  It  v^ill  come 
nearer  to  the  real  heart  of  things,  will  make  Christ  more 
central  and  regnant,  will  seek  more  the  spirit  than  the  letter 
of  the  Bible,  will  shape  itself  to  the  needs  of  this  life  quite 
as  truly  as  to  the  life  beyond.  We  may  trust  the  Pro- 
gressives to  import  into  it  all  the  divine  treasures  which  the 
new  learning  of  this  new  age  can  provide,  while  we  may 
trust  the  Conservatives  that  no  divine  treasure  of  the  old 
theology  shall  be  discarded  or  neglected. 

A  BETTER  EDUCATION 

Along  with  a  better  Bible  and  a  better  theology  we  are 
to  have  a  better  education — more  of  it  and  of  a  higher 
quality.  In  the  last  half-decade  marvelous  strides  have  been 
made  in  an  educational  way.  East,  west,  and  south  an  im- 
pulse hitherto  unknown  has  seized  our  people.  Apparently 
not  yet  has  the  denomination  struck  its  gait,  but  once  under 
way  the  next  half-century  will  show  an  advance  which  only 
the  most  daring  would  venture  to  predict.  True  to  their 
instincts  the  Conservatives  are  finding  fault  with  the 
teachers  and  the  teaching,  with  the  things  taught  and  those 
who  teach  them — with  the  new  spirit  which  has  seized  the 
schools — but  their  obstructive  tactics  will  simply  keep  the 
Progressives  in  healthful  movement — not  too  fast  for 
safety — and  the  denomination  will  enjoy  an  educational 
progress  unprecedented  in  Baptist  history. 

A  BETTER  ECCLESIASTICISM 

A  better-educated  people  with  a  better  understanding  of 
the  Bible  and  a  better  theology,  will  have  a  better  ecclesiasti- 
cism. We  shall  still  hold  our  denominational  tenets  as  wisely 
and  firmly  as  ever,  but  sectarianism  for  the  mere  sake  of  sec- 
tarianism will  seem  to  our  children  unworthy  of  Christian 


446  The  Baptist  Outlook 

men.  Confronted  by  the  sullen  masses  of  heathenism 
abroad,  and  the  tremendous  forces  of  evil  at  home,  we  shall 
feel  that  it  is  more  important  to  stand  with  other  denomi- 
nations against  our  common  enemies  than  to  stand  aloof 
from  them  for  our  distinctive  principles.  We  shall  still 
teach  what  we  conceive  to  be  the  evident  meaning  of  the 
word  of  God,  but  the  old  bitterness  will  disappear.  We 
shall  indulge  no  more  in  railing  accusations.  The  out- 
rageous way  in  which  we  have  been  treated  by  other  de- 
nominations will  be  forgotten.  The  marvelous  progress  of 
Baptist  principles  in  the  past,  principles  of  which  these 
denominations  are  stout  champions  today,  but  for  which 
they  whipped,  fined,  and  imprisoned  us  a  few  generations 
back — this  gratifying  incorporation  of  principles  for  which 
we  once  stood  alone  against  the  world  leads  us  to  hope 
that  the  other  denominations  will  some  day  have  sense  and 
grace  enough  to  adopt  the  few  that  remain.  We  shall  still 
insist  on  Bible  teaching,  but  shall  try  to  do  it  in  the  spirit  of 
the  Bible.  It  will  be  some  time  before  Baptists  are  no 
longer  needed,  but  we  shall  make  ourselves  as  agreeable  to 
other  people  as  their  errors  will  permit;  and  we  shall  show 
them  plainly  that  our  ecclesiasticism  is  no  bar  to  the  most 
brotherly  co-operation  where  the  interests  are  common  and 
no  principle  is  in  peril.  Here  as  elsewhere  the  tendency  of 
Conservatives  to  obtrude  denominationalism  offensively  and 
of  Progressives  to  disparage  denominationalism  unduly 
will  check  and  correct  each  other. 

A  BETTER  MISSIONARY  ENDEAVOR 

In  the  missionary  activities  of  the  Baptists  the  party 
spirit  is  not  yet  conspicuously  present.  Here,  as  elsewhere, 
however,  the  old  and  the  new  are  likely  to  come  into  col- 
lision.   There  exists  a  good  deal  of  discontent  with  present 


Better  Missionary  and  Sociological  Work  447 

ideas,  aims,  methods,  and  results,  which  manifests  itself  in 
a  half-hearted  support  of  existing  agencies,  but  which  will 
some  time  take  new  shape  in  open  criticism  and  in  sugges- 
tions of  reform.  If  the  advocates  of  old-time  missions,  and 
the  advocates  of  radical  and  far-reaching  innovations  and 
readjustments  meet  each  other  in  a  spirit  of  fairness  and 
concession  a  gradual  and  peaceful  revolution  will  not  be 
impossible.  Not  too  much  will  be  demanded  and  not  too 
much  will  be  conceded.  The  recent  creation  of  a  Commis- 
sion on  Systematic  Beneficence  is  one  of  the  hopeful  signs. 
It  means  much  that  the  officials  of  our  missionary  organi- 
zations are  willing  to  occupy  common  ground,  and  to  bring 
their  several  societies  into  co-ordinate  relations.  Perhaps 
this  will  prove  a  greater  indirect  blessing  than  anything 
directly  intended.  Certainly  its  tendency  will  be  quietly  to 
remove  the  wicked  distinction  between  foreign  and  home 
missions,  and  the  wicked  partisan  spirit  which  that  distinc- 
tion has  so  unhappily  fostered.  This  instance  is  a  good 
illustration  of  the  way  in  which  God,  in  his  overruling  provi- 
dence, can  break  down  antiquated  prejudices,  can  harmonize 
jarring  interests,  can  reshape  and  reanimate  our  whole 
broad  denominational  missionary  enterprise. 

A  BETTER  SOCIOLOGICAL  ACTIVITY 

It  is  certain  that  in  the  future  the  new  science  of  soci- 
ology will  play  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  activities  of 
Baptists.  Once  two  preaching-services,  a  Sunday  school 
and  a  prayer-meeting,  composed  the  public  duty  of  a  Baptist 
church.  Only  narrow  and  belated  people  entertain  that  idea 
now.  Today  Christians  and  churches  see  it  to  be  part  of 
their  Christianity  to  understand  and  to  help  man  in  all  his 
conditions  and  relations.  It  is  not  enough  to  think  of  his 
soul  and  his  future.     To  be  effective  this  thinking  must 


448  The  Baptist  Outlook 

include  his  body  as  well,  and  all  the  antecedents  and  sur- 
roundings that  affect  his  soul.  And  this  thinking  must 
become  truly  effective  by  reaching  a  helping  hand  to  the 
whole  need  of  the  whole  man.  A  fractional  service  will 
not  meet  the  coming  ideal.  The  institutional  church  is  the 
initial  step  in  this  direction.  Such  churches  will  exist  in  all 
our  larger  towns  before  the  close  of  the  century;  and  our 
wide-awake  missionaries  in  China  and  India  will  catch  the 
idea  and  transport  it  to  foreign  lands.  It  seems  inevitable 
that  much  precious  energy  will  be  ill  directed  and  wasted 
in  the  transition  from  the  historical  to  the  ideal  Baptist 
church,  but  undoubtedly  the  improvement  will  justify  the 
expenditure. 

A  BETTER  YOUNG  PEOPLE's  INFLUENCE 

It  would  astonish  our  fathers  to  witness  the  prominence 
of  the  young  people  in  modern  Christianity.  This  promi- 
nence will  not  diminish.  Some  evils  are  already  here  and 
still  others  will  doubtless  come,  but  the  advantages  of  this 
phenomenal  movement  easily  overmaster  all  unfriendly 
criticism.  The  elderly  members  may  wisely  attempt  to  guide 
this  mighty  force,  but  they  will  never  be  foolish  enough  to 
attempt  to  stay  its  progress.  The  wisdom  of  creating  an 
independent  denominational  organization  seems  to  be 
steadily  justifying  itself  by  the  increased  intelligence  and 
efficiency  which  its  educational  and  systematizing  agencies 
are  bringing  about.  A  few  years  of  Christian  culture 
courses  will  bring  upon  the  scene  of  action  a  generation  of 
Baptists  better  prepared  than  were  their  predecessors  to  do 
the  Christian  work  of  the  day,  and  to  realize  the  aims  and 
claims  of  the  religion  they  profess.  In  the  near  future  we 
may  look  for  a  hot  contest  between  the  Conservatives  and 
Progressives  over  the  possession  and  control  of  the  young 


A  Better  Young  People's  Influence  449 

people  because  it  is  evident  that  the  whole  future  is  in  their 
keeping.  Men  who  cling  to  the  past  and  are  afraid  of 
innovation  will  do  their  utmost  to  silence  the  questionings 
of  the  Baptist  youth  and  to  frighten  them  into  submission 
to  established  notions  and  customs.  Men  whose  minds  are 
open  to  new  impressions  and  who  are  willing  to  change  their 
views  on  sufficient  ground  will  do  their  utmost  to  free  the 
Baptist  youth  from  the  trammels  of  traditionalism  and  to 
make  them  reverently  receptive  of  divine  truth  however  it 
may  collide  with  their  preconceptions.  Between  Conserva- 
tives and  Progressives  our  young  people  will  get  a  training 
which  will  admirably  fit  them  for  the  new  duties  of  the  new 
age  into  which  they  are  about  to  enter. 

In  that  new  age  most  of  the  questions  which  now  divide 
us  will  be  finally  settled,  and  our  people  will  be  of  one  mind 
concerning  them.  Just  as  we  have  forgotten  the  issues 
which  distracted  our  fathers,  so  our  children  will  forget  the 
issues  over  which  the  conflict  rages  now.  In  that  day  new 
issues  will  emerge  and  new  lines  of  division  will  be  drawn. 
As  of  old  the  conservative  spirit  and  the  progressive  spirit 
will  enlist  on  opposite  sides ;  and  with  new  questions  in  dis- 
pute the  Christian  world  will  advance  in  the  future  as  in  the 
past  under  the  check  and  spur  of  these  two  principles  which 
have  their  seat  in  human  nature  itself. 


XVIII 

THE  MAN  AND  THE  MESSAGE  FOR  THE 
TWENTIETH  CENTURY 


XVIII 

THE  MAN  AND  THE  MESSAGE  FOR  THE 
TWENTIETH  CENTURY  ^ 

In  many  respects,  the  nineteen  Christian  centuries  are 
exactly  alike.  An  element  of  sameness  runs  through  them 
all.  In  many  respects,  each  century  has  its  characteristic 
features  which  markedly  distinguish  it  from  every  other. 
Christian  men  of  our  age  share  with  Christian  men  of  other 
ages  in  the  experience  of  grace  common  to  all  saints,  and 
at  the  same  time  exhibit  types  of  gracious  experience 
peculiar  to  the  age  in  which  they  were  born.  The  gospel 
message  is  the  same  in  all  ages,  though  in  each  age  peculi- 
arities attach  themselves  to  it  which  modify  its  outward 
expression.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  things  in  which  all 
centuries  agree  are  more  radical  and  important  than  the 
things  in  which  they  differ.  The  things  in  which  the  Chris- 
tian man  has  a  share  in  common  with  all  fellow-Christians 
are  more  real  and  central  than  the  things  which  make  his 
case  singular  and  unique.  The  things  in  which  the  gospel 
message  is  the  very  same  in  whatever  age  are  more  vital 
and  urgent  than  the  things  in  which  some  particular  age 
gives  the  message  a  peculiar  setting  and  adaptation. 

Now,  in  speaking  of  the  man  and  the  message  for  the 
twentieth  century,  I  could  confine  myself  to  those  features 
of  the  twentieth  century  and  to  those  elements  of  Christian 
manhood,  and  to  those  constituents  of  the  gospel  message 
which  are  common  to  all  the  centuries,  and  in  so  doing  I 

^  Opening  address  before  the  Divinity  School,  The  University  of  Chi- 
cago, October  4,  1899. 

453 


454  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

should  be  dealing  with  the  matters  of  most  fundamental  and 
abiding  import.  But,  in  so  doing,  I  should  also  be  dealing 
with  matters  with  which  we  are  already  familiar;  over  which 
it  would  be  difficult  to  awaken  fresh  inquiry;  concerning 
which  there  would  be  scant  room  for  difference  of  opinion, 
and  upon  which  there  is  no  present  and  special  call  for 
reflection. 

On  the  other  hand,  if,  in  this  discussion,  I  should  direct 
attention  to  those  peculiarities  of  the  twentieth  century 
which  differentiate  it  from  every  other,  and  on  account  of 
which  the  gospel  message  suited  to  that  century  must  be 
differentiated  from  the  message  as  delivered  in  any  other  (I 
mean  not  in  its  essentials  but  in  its  accessories),  and  on 
account  of  which  the  man  proclaiming  the  message  must 
possess  qualifications  not  hitherto  exhibited,  because  not 
hitherto  necessitated,  the  discussion,  so  conducted,  while 
dealing  with  matters  less  fundamental  and  vital,  would  cer- 
tainly be  more  timely  and  helpful.  The  discussion,  so  con- 
ducted, though  more  liable  to  misconception,  more  open  to 
debate  and  questioning,  more  exposed  to  criticism  and  cen- 
sure, and  more  perilous  to  the  speaker,  would  be  more  pro- 
vocative to  thought,  and  in  every  way  more  stimulating  and 
informing.  I  choose,  therefore,  to  pursue  this  latter  course, 
and  especially  because,  in  addition  to  what  has  already  been 
said,  this  seems  to  be  the  very  intent  of  the  subject  assigned 
me.  It  is  not  the  man  in  general,  nor  the  message  for  any 
age,  but  the  man  and  the  message  for  the  twentieth  century. 

In  elaborating  my  theme,  I  do  not  assume  the  role  of  a 
prophet.  The  centuries  overlap.  The  nineteenth  is  about 
to  merge  into  the  twentieth.  The  early  part  of  the  twentieth 
must  necessarily  partake  of  the  spirit  and  tendencies  of  the 
closing  part  of  the  nineteenth,  and  it  is  only  with  the  early 
part  that  we  are  directly  concerned. 


Four  Classes  of  Men  455 

In  the  new  century  upon  which  we  are  about  to  enter  the 
Christian  preacher,  teacher,  and  leader  will  meet  four  classes 
of  men:  (i)  Firm  believers  who  have  embraced  the  Chris- 
tian religion  because  they  are  satisfied  it  is  true;  (2)  firm 
unbelievers  who  have  rejected  the  Christian  religion  be- 
cause they  are  satisfied  it  is  a  delusion;  (3)  a  class  indiffer- 
ent to  the  Christian  religion,  careless  whether  it  is  true  or 
false;  (4)  a  class  who  have  neither  accepted  nor  rejected 
because  their  faith  is  stifled  by  the  anti-Christian  prejudices 
with  which  the  atmosphere  is  charged.  They  cannot  be 
numbered  with  pantheists,  materialists,  deists,  or  agnostics, 
on  the  one  hand ;  neither,  on  the  other,  can  they  be  accounted 
Christians.  Their  sympathies  are  on  the  Christian  side,  but 
their  minds  are  held  in  suspense.  They  have  been  described 
as  "generous  spirits,"  having  "a  certain  fairness  and  open- 
ness of  mind,"  but  "under  hostile  bias."  "They  are  drawn 
in  two  directions,  toward  and  away  from  Christ."  They 
are  "honest  doubters"  who  would  gladly  reach  a  "stable 
faith" — "sincere  inquirers,  earnest  seekers  after  God  and 
truth,  groping  their  way  amid  the  darkness  of  involuntary 
misapprehensions." 

Do  not  indulge  the  thought  that  this  latter  class  is  small. 
It  is  large  today  and  will  be  larger  tomorrow  unless  con- 
ditions change.  Many  such  bewildered  minds  are  found  in 
Christian  congregations.  They  do  not  parade  their  per- 
plexities. They  keep  their  own  counsels.  They  give  an 
outward  countenance  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  but  they  make 
no  profession.  Still  others  have  drawn  away  from  the 
churches  altogether,  who,  nevertheless,  have  not  discarded 
religion,  and  who  perhaps  are  nearer  the  kingdom  of  God 
than  many  whose  only  claim  to  faith  is  based  on  the  "acci- 
dents of  birth  and  education."  In  every  Christian  com- 
munity, among  the  churchless  masses,  many  there  are  in 


456  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

whom  there  still  remains  a  "spiritual  receptivity,' 
cere  sympathy  with  the  good,  an  implicit  rudimentary  faith 
in  God,  a  restless  longing  for  light  on  the  dark  problems  of 
life;"  men  and  women  who  are  neither  Christian  nor  anti- 
Christian,  waiting  for  a  satisfactory  escape  from  the  be- 
wildering maze  in  which  they  find  themselves  placed. 

Now  by  virtue  of  this  twentieth-century  situation — a 
situation  continued  from  the  nineteenth — by  virtue  of  the 
material  with  which  the  Christian  man  will  have  to  deal,  he 
is  of  necessity  under  obligation  to  proclaim  a  gospel  message 
which  shall  be,  in  part  at  least,  apologetic.  An  urgent  func- 
tion of  the  Christian  preacher  and  teacher  will  be  to  uphold 
the  faith,  to  remove  groundless  objections,  to  clear  away 
prejudices,  to  set  it  forth  in  a  favorable  light,  to  win  for  it  a 
favorable  regard.  This  part  of  his  task  will  not  be  in  the 
interest  of  the  first  three  classes.  But  eminently  and 
solemnly  in  the  interest  of  the  fourth  class — people  thought- 
ful and  honest,  keenly  sensitive  to  the  new  ideas  which  are 
finding  place  in  the  modern  world,  no  longer  resting  peace- 
fully in  the  religious  notions  of  their  childhood,  perturbed, 
doubting,  dissatisfied,  inquiring;  only  needing  the  intelligent 
sympathy  and  proper  guidance  of  wise  leaders  to  be  brought 
into  Christian  discipleship ;  prepared  to  hear  Christ  gladly 
and  follow  in  his  footsteps  "if  his  own  true  voice  could  only 
reach  their  ear."  For  this  class,  I  say,  it  is  imperative  that 
the  gospel  message  shall  have  an  apologetic  tone ;  not  apolo- 
getic in  the  sense  of  apologizing,  nor  even  of  defending, 
but  of  simplifying,  clarifying,  modernizing,  bringing  the 
first  and  twentieth  centuries  closer  together. 

Once  again,  the  Christian  preacher,  teacher,  and  guide 
will  meet  in  the  twentieth  century  (as  he  does  now  in  the 
nineteenth),  among  professed  Christians  themselves,  two 
classes  of  men : 


Two  Classes  of  Professed  Christians  457 

First,  disciples  who  have  accepted  a  formulated  scheme 
or  system  of  Christian  doctrine  which  they  honestly  believe 
sets  forth  truthfully  the  religion  of  Christ  and  in  which  their 
minds  find  satisfaction  and  rest.  It  is  a  programme  of 
beliefs  which  seems  to  them  orderly  and  coherent,  and  which 
can  vindicate  itself  at  the  bar  of  Scripture,  of  history,  and 
of  experience.  They  label  their  favorite  confession  of  faith 
Calvinism,  or  Arminianism,  or  Socinianism,  or  Anglicanism, 
or  Lutheranism,  or  Roman  Catholicism.  The  accepted 
"ism,"  whatever  it  is,  represents  to  their  minds  the  religion 
which  Jesus  Christ  came  into  the  world  to  establish. 

Then  there  is  a  second  class  of  disciples  to  whom  the 
traditional  theology,  under  whatever  form,  is  far  from  satis- 
factory. They  behold  an  elaborate  schedule  of  dogmatic 
propositions  which  the  modern  church  has  inherited,  and 
which  many  in  the  modern  church  deem  it  a  matter  of  life 
and  death  to  perpetuate,  but  which  to  their  minds  has  lost  its 
power  of  appeal.  They  have  grown  away  from  it.  They 
have  lost  their  interest  in  it.  They  have  ceased  to  believe 
it.  Have  they  discarded  religion  ?  Oh,  no.  They  have  dis- 
carded this  ecclesiastical  casing  in  which  well-meaning 
people  have  tried  to  confine  and  preserve  it,  and  with  which 
many  have  even  tried  to  identify  it.  To  their  minds  religion 
and  dogma  are  not  identical,  and  the  current  theology  is 
not  a  worthy  expression  and  exponent  of  the  religion  Jesus 
taught.  Some  of  its  articles  are  certainly  true,  some  half 
true,  some  not  true  at  all.  Some  have  their  solid  bases  in 
both  reason  and  revelation,  but  some  cannot  be  justified  at 
the  bar  of  philosophy,  of  science,  of  Scripture,  or  common- 
sense,  or  even  of  morality  itself. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  this  mental  and  moral  attitude 
toward  ecclesiastical  dogma  is  of  recent  origin.  Within  the 
last  thirty  years  the  new  conditions  have  arisen  which  have 


458  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

thus  unsettled  multitudes  of  earnest,  truth-loving  souls 
theologically,  and  their  numbers  multiply  as  the  nineteenth 
century  wanes. 

Now  by  virtue  of  this  twentieth-century  situation,  a 
situation  continued  from  the  nineteenth,  by  virtue  of  the 
material  with  which  the  Christian  preacher  and  teacher  will 
have  to  deal,  he  is  of  necessity  obligated  to  proclaim  a  gospel 
message  which  shall  be  in  part  at  least  polemic.  He  cannot 
escape  his  environment;  the  needs  of  his  constituency  fix 
the  character  of  his  responsibility.  He  must  address  him- 
self to  the  task  of  proclaiming  a  message  which  on  its 
theological  or  dogmatic  side,  while  true  to  the  facts  of  reve- 
lation, shall  not  ignore  the  facts  of  modern  enlightenment. 
Underlying  his  message  must  be  a  theology  expressing  the 
eternal  verities  of  our  religion  in  terms  of  modern  thought 
and  in  full  view  of  modern  needs.  Taking  the  whole  revela- 
tion of  God,  as  found  in  nature,  man,  the  Book,  and  Christ, 
he  must  so  draw  out  its  contents  as  to  enlighten  and  per- 
suade that  large  and  increasing  class  whose  intellectual  and 
spiritual  characters  have  been  so  profoundly  affected  by 
twentieth-century  influences.  This  he  owes  to  the  religion 
he  represents  and  to  the  men  and  women  whom  confessional 
theology  can  never  satisfy. 

I  said,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  twentieth  century  mes- 
sage must  be  in  part  apologetic.  I  say  now,  in  the  second 
place,  that  it  must  be  in  part  polemic.  In  contrast  with  the 
antiquated  forms  of  thought  which  so  many  have  discarded, 
it  must  modernize  its  dogmatic  statements.  It  must  offer 
the  living  present  a  living  theology  drawn  fresh  from  living 
sources. 

Still  other  changes  in  twentieth-century  conditions  will 
call  for  still  other  adaptations  of  the  gospel  message,  but  I 
have  not  time  to  name  them  here.     I  wish  now  to  present 


An  Apologetic  Message  Needed  459 

somewhat  in  detail  the  grounds  or  reasons  for  my  conten- 
tion that  the  gospel  message  in  the  twentieth  century  must 
exhibit  the  characteristics  I  have  named. 

I.       THE   NEED  OF  AN  APOLOGETIC    MESSAGE 

I  examine,  first,  the  conditions  which  will  necessitate  an 
apologetic  message.  Early  in  this  new  age  these  conditions 
will  be  the  very  same  as  now  prevail ;  what  the  new  age  itself 
will  develop  no  mortal  can  foretell.  What  are  the  perplex- 
ing ideas  by  which  many  earnest  minds,  predisposed  in 
favor  of  the  revealed  religion,  will  be  harassed  and  hin- 
dered in  the  coming  century  and  which  it  will  be  the  func- 
tion of  the  apologetic  message  to  adjust  to  the  Christian 
faith  ?  They  spring  from  four  sources :  First,  the  postu- 
lates of  recent  philosophy;  secondly,  modern  research  in 
the  domain  of  comparative  religion;  thirdly,  the  new 
literary-critical  study  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures;  fourthly, 
the  discoveries  and  hypotheses  of  modern  science. 

With  the  first  two  I  have  not  the  time  to  deal ;  the  third 
and  fourth  I  dwell  upon  just  long  enough  to  disclose  the 
new  point  of  view. 

3.       THE   HIGHER  CRITICISM 

We  derive  our  original  knowledge  of  Christianity  from 
the  writings  of  the  New  Testament,  with  which  are  inti- 
mately associated  the  Hebrew  scriptures.  In  recent  years, 
this  body  of  ancient  literature  has  been  subjected  to  a  search- 
ing examination,  resulting  in  the  rejection,  on  the  part  of 
eminent  scholars,  of  many  of  the  opinions  hitherto  enter- 
tained by  the  Christian  church  concerning  the  authorship, 
date,  structure,  purpose,  etc.,  of  many  of  the  writings  con- 
tained in  the  Sacred  Canon.  This  work  of  learned  and  fear- 
less examination  will  pass  on  into  the  new  century,  and  in 


460  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

the  future  as  in  the  present  will  not  only  greatly  disturb 
many  earnest  Christians,  but  will  also  raise  doubting  in- 
quiries in  the  minds  of  many  who  make  no  profession  of 
religious  faith.  Here  is  raised  a  formidable  obstacle  in  the 
way  of  their  coming  over,  with  hearty  conviction,  to  the 
Christian  side. 

Let  me  enumerate  a  few  of  the  findings  of  these  men 
who  have  given  themselves  to  the  laborious  and  penetrating 
study  of  the  literature  of  the  ancient  Hebrews  and  the  early 
Christians.  Their  handling  of  the  books  of  the  Bible  cer- 
tainly plays  havoc  with  many  of  our  preconceived  notions. 
I  used  to  be  told  that  the  Pentateuch  was  written  by  Moses, 
except  the  account  of  his  own  death;  but  now  I  am  told 
that  he  had  a  very  small  part  in  its  composition;  that  the 
Book  of  Genesis  is  really  a  compilation  of  pre-existing 
materials  having  diverse  literary  characteristics;  that  some- 
one, long  after  Moses,  dovetailed  together  these  separate 
documents  into  one  composite  book  of  origins ;  that  the  four 
"books  of  the  Pentateuch  which  follow  Genesis  are  also 
for  the  most  part  post-Mosaic;"  that  the  collections  of  laws 
which  they  contain  exhibit  "at  least  three  distinct  strata  of 
legislation,  of  different  dates,  but  all  subsequent  to  the  time 
of  Moses."  I  used  to  be  told  that  the  order  of  events  was 
nearly  the  same  as  that  laid  down  in  the  Bible  itself — the 
elaborate  system  of  legislation  attributed  to  Moses  coming 
long  before  the  great  prophecies  which  are  printed  in  the 
last  part  of  the  book;  but  now  I  am  told  that  the  law — the 
ten  words  excepted — was  not  given  by  Moses  at  all,  and  that 
"the  order  subsisting  between  law  and  prophecy  must  be 
inverted."  Instead  of  saying,  "the  law  and  the  prophets," 
I  must  say,  "the  prophets  and  the  law."  "The  law,  in  the 
comprehensive  sense,  did  not  come  until  the  great  prophets 
had  delivered  their  messages."     It  belongs  really  "to  the 


The  Higher  Criticism  461 

post-prophetic  period — to  the  time  of  the  return  from  exile 
and  of  Ezra  the  scribe." 

I  used  to  be  told  that  the  Book  of  Isaiah  was  the  work 
of  Isaiah  the  son  of  Amos,  but  now  I  am  told  that  "among 
these  prophecies  are  some  which  are  not  the  work  of  Isaiah 
himself,  but  belong  to  a  different  and  later  period  of  Israel- 
itish  history."  Chapters  24-27  inclusive,  not  written  by 
Isaiah,  "may  be  referred  most  plausibly  to  the  early  post- 
exilic  period."  Chapters  36-39  inclusive  were  excerpted  by 
the  compiler  out  of  the  Book  of  Kings.  The  last  twenty- 
seven  chapters — chapters  40-66  inclusive — were  "not  the 
work  of  Isaiah,  but  had  for  their  author  a  prophet  writing 
toward  the  close  of  the  Babylonian  captivity."  Who  this 
second  Isaiah  was  we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 

I  used  to  be  told  that  most  of  the  Psalms  were  composed 
by  King  David,  certainly  the  seventy-three  directly  ascribed 
to  him ;  but  now  I  am  told  that  the  titles  are  untrustworthy, 
and  that  "the  majority  of  the  'Davidic'  psalms  are  certainly 
not  David's;"  that  "they  sprang  in  fact  from  many  different 
periods  from  the  time  of  David  himself  downward,  very 
few  of  them  being  earlier  than  the  seventh  century  b.  c." 

I  used  to  be  told  that  Solomon  wrote  the  Song  of  Songs 
and  Ecclesiastes  and  most  of  the  Proverbs;  but  now  I  am 
told  that  Solomon's  authorship  of  Canticles  "is  evidently  out 
of  the  question,"  that  Ecclesiastes  is  the  product  of  an  age 
far  later  than  Solomon,  and  that  the  traditional  interpre- 
tation of  both  books  must  be  set  aside.  In  Proverbs  we 
have  before  us  the  work  of  different  wise  men,  in  which 
Solomon  had  only  a  small  share. 

To  sum  it  all  up  in  a  single  sentence,  I  used  to  be  told 
that  the  conservative  view  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures,  as  set 
forth  by  such  eminent  scholars  as  William  Henry  Green  and 
Howard  Osgood  was  according  to  truth ;  but  now  I  am  told 


462  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

that  both  men  are  representatives  of  a  past  generation;  that 
they  have  no  successors,  and  that  the  ripest  Old  Testament 
scholarship  of  the  present  day  in  Great  Britain  and  America, 
as  well  as  in  Germany,  has  broken  with  Osgood  and  Green 
and  has  given  its  sympathy  and  adherence  to  the  critical 
spirit  and  findings  of  such  men  as  W.  Robertson  Smith, 
George  Adam  Smith,  Cheyne,  Briggs,  Driver,  Harper,  and 
the  rest. 

And  so  this  scientific  study  of  the  Scriptures  runs  on — 
runs  through  the  New  Testament  as  well  as  the  Old,  and 
yields  us  many  surprising  results.  I  need  not  pursue  it 
farther,  except  to  say  that  I  used  to  be  told  that  the  Bible 
was  entirely  free  from  errors — but  now  I  am  told  that 
errors  can  be  pointed  out  in  numerous  instances.  Was  I 
not  justified  in  saying,  a  moment  ago,  that  this  critical 
handling  of  the  Scriptures  plays  havoc  with  many  of  the 
opinions  hitherto  entertained  by  the  Christian  church? 

These  literary  discoveries  were  once  the  private  property 
of  a  few  specialists,  but  now  they  are  the  common  property 
of  the  general  public.  Nobody  today  holds  a  patent  on  any 
of  them.  And  so  the  pertinent  and  practical  inquiry  comes. 
What  will  the  Christian  preacher  and  teacher  do  about  it? 
I  insist  that  the  necessity  is  upon  him  to  do  something.  As 
has  been  truthfully  said : 

He  cannot  go  on  his  way  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  He  must 
adjust  himself  to  the  new  situation.  He  must  take  into  account  opin- 
ions confidently  advanced  by  others,  to  the  extent  at  least  of  con- 
sidering how  far  they  are  compatible,  or  the  reverse,  with  the  faith  he 
is  concerned  to  defend. 

Thoughtful  and  perturbed  minds  rightfully  demand  his 
guidance  and  aid.  His  message  must  be  in  part  at  least 
apologetic. 


How  Conduct  His  Apology  463 

Plainly,  in  conducting  his  apology,  several  courses  are 
open  to  him  : 

( 1 )  He  can  say  that  the  men  engaged  in  this  work  have 
sold  themselves  to  the  devil,  and  are  trying  to  tear  the 
Bible  to  pieces  and  to  destroy  the  faith — thus  saving  his 
cherished  opinions  by  blackening  the  character  of  investi- 
gators. The  peril  here  is  that  the  unprejudiced  might  insti- 
tute a  comparison  between  his  own  character  and  the 
character  of  those  whom  he  maligns. 

(2)  Or  he  can  say  that  the  men  who  are  overhauling  the 
Bible  are  divided  among  themselves,  and  need  only  to  be  let 
alone  to  work  their  own  ruin.  It  is  certainly  true  that 
critical  opinion  is  yet  in  an  unsettled  state,  and  that  on  many 
minor  and  some  major  issues  there  is  great  diversity  of 
view,  but  on  the  broader  and  more  important  critical  con- 
clusions there  obtains,  in  all  the  advanced  schools,  a  remark- 
able unanimity  of  conviction.  And  the  theory  that  if  this 
thing  is  let  alone  it  will  die  of  itself  hardly  comports  with 
the  surprising  "progress  critical  opinion  has  made  during 
recent  years,  especially  in  England  and  America." 

(3)  Or  he  can  say  that  the  documentary  hypothesis  has 
already  run  its  course,  and  that  the  old  Bible  is  still  safe 
from  attack;  to  which  it  may  be  answered  that  the  old 
Bible  is  indeed  still  safe  from  attack,  but  the  old  ignorance 
of  how  the  Bible  came  into  existence  is  rapidly  vanishing 
before  the  critical  studies  which  it  is  no  longer  excusable  to 
misrepresent. 

(4)  Or  he  can  say  there  are  certain  points  on  which  it 
can  be  demonstrated  that  the  critics  are  evidently  wrong, 
from  which  it  follows  that  their  views  in  general  are  to  be 
discredited.  But  this  is  to  ignore  the  distinction  which  the 
critics  themselves  are  careful  to  make,  viz.,  that  there  are 
"degrees  of  probability,"  and  that  "the  probability  of  a  con- 


464  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

elusion  depends  entirely  upon  the  nature  of  the  grounds  on 
which  it  rests." 

(5)  Or  he  can  say  that  our  Lord  himself  frequently  ap- 
pealed to  the  Hebrew  scriptures  and  in  such  a  way  as  to 
invalidate  the  conclusions  of  the  critics.  But  this  is  merely 
to  shift  the  ground  of  debate,  for  the  critics  themselves, 
confessing  that  Christ  made  frequent  use  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, stoutly  deny  that  he  ever  pronounced  a  verdict  on  the 
"authorship  and  age  of  its  different  parts,"  or  that  he  ever 
in  any  single  instance  anticipated  or  confuted  the  "critical 
view  of  its  structure  and  growth." 

(6)  Or  he  can  say  the  whole  matter  is  easily  settled 
a  priori :  A  book  of  the  character  described  by  the  investi- 
gators is  unworthy  of  God,  and  therefore  cannot  be  as  they 
describe  it;  or,  the  Bible  is  an  inspired  volume,  and  must 
therefore  be  perfect  in  every  part — to  deny  its  perfection  is 
to  impugn  its  author.  This  kind  of  reasoning  is  somewhat 
hazardous.  It  was  once  used  to  prove  that  every  part  of  the 
sacred  volume  is  equally  inspired.  It  was  once  used  to  prove 
that  the  "New  Testament  Greek  is  as  pure  and  elegant  as 
the  classical  Greek" — in  face  of  the  glaring  fact  of  the  con- 
trary being  the  case,  now  universally  conceded.  It  was  once 
used  to  prove  that  every  word  and  letter  is  inspired  of  God, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  there  "are  more  than  a  hun- 
dred thousand  various  readings  in  the  different  manu- 
scripts of  the  New  Testament,  and  no  man  can  now  say  for 
certain  just  what  were  the  very  words  of  Jesus  or  of  Paul 
or  of  John."  It  was  once  used  to  prove  the  inspiration  of 
the  vowel-points,  though  it  is  now  known  that  the  Hebrew 
text  was  originally  written  in  consonants,  and  that  the 
vowel-points  are  a  later  addition.  It  is  seldom  safe  to 
reason  a  priori.  It  is  safer  to  ascertain  the  facts  first,  and 
then  to  suit  our  theories  to  them. 


The  Authofs  Attitude  465 

(7)  I  am  strongly  persuaded  the  apology  can  be  con- 
structed on  better  lines.  Let  the  defender  of  the  faith  set 
himself  the  task  of  showing  that  the  conclusions  of  the 
critics  in  no  wise  affect  the  essentials  of  the  gospel.  For 
the  sake  of  argument,  let  him  concede  all  that  the  critics 
claim,  and  then  let  him  show  how  foreign  it  all  is  to  any- 
thing that  is  really  vital  to  the  Christian  faith.  Let  him 
not  commit  the  egregious  blunder  of  staking  his  religion  on 
the  successful  defense  of  the  traditional  authorship  or  age 
of  any  written  document.  If  he  will,  let  him  say  that  he 
has  no  confidence  whatever  in  the  results  of  biblical  criti- 
cism, and,  at  the  same  time,  let  him  say  that,  though 
mathematically  demonstrated,  they  would  not  in  the  least 
disturb  any  central  principle  in  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ. 

If  I  may  be  permitted  to  speak  of  my  own  attitude 
toward  these  literary  problems,  I  will  say  that  I  do  not 
know,  from  personal  knowledge,  whether  Moses  wrote  the 
Pentateuch  or  not,  nor  whether  Isaiah  was  the  sole  author 
of  the  book  which  bears  his  name.  My  personal  knowledge 
on  these  critical  questions  is  extremely  limited.  Candid  and 
qualified  men  who  have  given  their  lives  to  the  investiga- 
tion pronounce  conflicting  verdicts.  I  am  not  prepared  to 
say  which  side  is  right.  I  am  in  fullest  sympathy  with  the 
reverent  study  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  and  have  no  sym- 
pathy with  the  irreverent  study  of  any  subject,  least  of  all 
with  the  study  of  extremists  whose  chief  intent  is  to  mutilate 
and  destroy.  Our  concern  is  with  Christian  men  who  are 
trying  to  do  their  Christian  duty  in  the  scholarly  examina- 
tion of  the  biblical  records;  and  the  point  I  wish  the 
apologists  to  make  is  that,  whatever  their  conclusions,  the 
religion  we  and  they  profess  is  not  thereby  impaired. 

I  started  with  the  proposition  that  the  gospel  message 
in  the  twentieth  century  must  be  in  part  at  least  apologetic. 


466  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

I  have  sought  proof  for  this  in  the  new  Hterary-critical 
study  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  A  still  stronger  proof  can 
be  found  in  the  unsettling  effect  of  modern  science — its  dis- 
coveries and  hypotheses. 

4.       THE  FINDINGS  OF  MODERN  SCIENCE 

I  can  hint  at  only  one  phase  of  so  vast  a  subject.  This 
will  be  quite  sufficient,  however,  to  establish  the  thesis  for 
which  I  am  contending.  Within  our  own  lifetime  men's 
views  of  the  visible  universe  have  undergone  the  most 
radical  transformation.  Only  forty  years  ago  (1859), 
Darwin  published  his  Origin  of  Species,  and  only  thirty- 
seven  years  ago  (1862),  appeared  Spencer's  First  Prin- 
ciples of  a  System  of  Philosophy.  Under  the  Darwinian 
theory,  men  have  undertaken  to  explain  the  boundless  world 
of  living  beings,  with  its  infinite  variety  of  species,  from 
the  lowest  to  the  highest  forms  of  terrestrial  life.  The 
now  accepted  teaching  is  that  the  present  order  of  things, 
animate  and  inanimate,  has  come  about  through  an  evolu- 
tionary process,  stretching  over  myriads  of  ages.  Since 
Darwin's  day,  the  entire  scientific  world  has  adopted  the 
theory  of  inorganic  and  organic  evolution.  The  material 
worlds  and  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms,  including 
man  himself,  are  all  embraced  in  the  process.  That  man's 
bodily  organism  arose  out  of  earlier  animal  organisms,  com- 
parative anatomy  and  embryology  have  so  conclusively 
proved  that  the  scientific  mind  no  longer  entertains  a  doubt. 
That  his  intellect  and  conscience  were  also  evolved  is  not  so 
clear.  That  his  animal  nature  is  the  product  of  evolution 
all  agree;  that  his  rational  and  moral  natures  can  be  ex- 
plained in  the  same  way  some  affirm  and  some  deny.  This 
is  still  debatable  ground,  but  the  problem  is  being  studied 
with  passionate  interest,  and  perhaps  there  is  warrant  for 


The  Findings  of  Modern  Science  467 

saying  that  the  advocates  of  the  theory  that  "man  is  out  and 
out  the  child  of  evohttion"  outdo  their  opponents  both  in 
numbers  and  abihty.  It  is  not  impossible  that  the  twentieth 
century  will  witness  the  vindication  and  triumph  of  their 
view.  Certain  it  is  that  evolution,  partial  or  entire,  is  here, 
and,  in  one  form  or  another,  is  the  accepted  belief  of  the 
learned  world. 

And  so  the  pertinent  and  practical  inquiry  comes,  What 
will  the  Christian  preacher  and  leader  do  about  it?  I  insist 
that  the  necessity  is  upon  him  to  do  something.  "He  can- 
not go  on  his  way  as  if  nothing  had  happened."  If  the 
biblical  conclusions  of  literary  critics  called  for  an  apolo- 
getic message,  still  more  do  the  evolutionary  conclusions  of 
men  of  science.  I  often  wonder  that  questions  about  Deuter- 
onomy and  Isaiah  create  such  a  ferment  in  the  Christian 
mind,  while  the  immeasurably  deeper  and  more  vital  scien- 
tific questions  scarcely  disturb  the  repose  of  confidence. 
Certain  I  am  that  non-professors  in  Christian  communities 
have  been  profoundly  moved  by  scientific  theories,  and  that 
church  teachers  and  leaders  must  bring  to  them  a  satisfac- 
tory apologetic  message  if  they  are  not  to  be  permanently 
estranged.  Whether  evolution  is  true  or  false,  the  Chris- 
tian apologist,  proceeding  on  the  assumption  of  its  truth, 
must  set  himself  the  task  of  showing  how  the  old  religious 
faith  and  the  new  scientific  faith  can  live  together. 

Take  three  or  four  examples  by  way  of  illustration : 

(i)  Is  the  idea  and  act  of  creation,  as  set  forth  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Genesis,  compatible  with  the  idea  and  process 
of  evolution? 

(2)  Granted  a  single,  primordial,  creative  act,  from 
which  evolution  thenceforth  proceeds,  is  there  left  room 
thereafter  for  special  acts  of  creation?  The  old  idea  was 
that  the  fish,  the  reptile,  the  bird,  the  mammal  constitute 


468  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

four  distinct,  ascending  orders  of  life,  and  that  with  the 
advent  of  each  we  have  a  special  act  of  divine  creation.  Is 
special  creation  excluded  if  we  adopt  the  new  idea  that  their 
common  life  constitutes  them  really  only  one  species  each 
evolving  from  the  next  below? 

(3)  Does  the  account  we  have  in  Genesis  of  the  origin 
of  man  exhibit  a  leap  in  the  order  of  creation  which  contra- 
venes a  fundamental  postulate  of  evolution,  that  the  move- 
ment and  sequence  must  always  be  orderly  and  measured 
and  never  revolutionary? 

(4)  Can  the  Christian  doctrine  of  man's  primitive  inno- 
cence and  subsequent  fall  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the 
scientific  idea  of  man  as  evolved  from  the  lower  animal 
kingdom,  and  ever  advancing  to  higher  degrees  of  per- 
fection ? 

(5)  But  if  the  first  Adam  can,  in  any  sense,  be  said  to  be 
the  child  of  evolution,  where  can  be  found  a  place,  in  the 
all-embracing  evolutionary  process,  for  the  second  Adam  ? 

(6)  Can  a  man  be  a  thoroughgoing  evolutionist  and  con- 
tinue to  believe  in  the  incarnation  and  atonement,  in  sin  and 
forgiveness,  in  providence  and  prayer,  in  the  work  of  the 
Spirit  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul? 

These  are  large  inquiries,  in  contrast  with  which  ques- 
tions of  Pentateuchal  criticism  sink  into  insignificance;  and 
they  are  inquiries  which  will  agitate  the  bosoms  of  men  as 
the  twentieth-century  preacher  and  teacher  delivers  his 
gospel  message.  If  it  turns  out  that  evolution  has,  from  the 
beginning,  been  God's  mode  of  procedure,  a  way  must  be 
found  for  adjusting  this  procedure  to  the  revelations  he  has 
made  of  himself  in  Scripture  and  in  Christ.  Groping  and 
bewildered  souls  will  rightfully  demand  that  Christian  lead- 
ers point  out  this  way. 

If  I  may  be  permitted  to  speak  of  my  own  attitude 


True  Science  and  Religion  Harmonious  469 

toward  this  problem,  I  will  say  that  I  do  not  know,  from 
personal  knowledge,  whether  God  built  the  worlds  by  the 
evolutionary  method  or  not.  I  do  not  know  whether  man 
ascended  from  the  lower  animal  kingdom  or  not.  My  per- 
sonal knowledge  on  these  abstruse  topics  is  extremely  limited. 
Candid  and  qualified  men  who  have  given  their  lives  to  the 
investigation  pronounce  an  affirmative  verdict.  I  am  not 
prepared  to  say  that  they  are  wrong.  I  am  in  fullest  sym- 
pathy with  the  scientific  spirit,  and  with  scientific  methods, 
and  with  well-authenticated  scientific  results.  If  God  has 
been  working  in  a  certain  way,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  found 
fighting  against  him.  I  am  thankful  to  the  man  who  points 
out  to  me  the  mode  of  his  action.  I  never  threw  a  stone  at 
a  scientist  in  my  life. 

If  evolution  should  turn  out  to  be  true,  I  should  not 
tremble  for  the  ark  of  God.  Christian  men  have  often 
sounded  false  alarms.  Christian  men  once  said  the  earth 
was  flat.  When  Magellan  circumnavigated  the  globe,  the 
faith  was  not  imperiled.  Christian  men  once  said  the  sun 
revolved  around  the  earth.  Copernicus  was  not  the  enemy 
of  God  when  he  demolished  the  Ptolemaic  system.  Chris- 
tian men  once  said  that  if  the  worlds  are  held  together  by 
gravitation,  gravitation  would  take  the  place  of  God,  who 
would  thereby  be  ruled  out  of  his  own  universe;  but  New- 
ton's discovery  did  not  harm  religion.  Christian  men  once 
said  the  earth  was  made  in  six  literal  days;  but  nobody 
believes  that  now.  Christian  men  once  said  the  earth  and 
Adam  were  created  about  six  thousand  years  ago;  but  that 
idea  is  now  abandoned.  Christian  men  once  said  the  fossils 
in  the  rocks  were  deposited  there  miraculously  on  the  day 
of  creation,  or  possibly  in  the  days  of  the  deluge;  but  even 
such  idiocy  did  not  work  Christianity  any  permanent  injury. 

Likewise  the  wonderful  advances  in  the  physical  sciences 


47o  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

in  the  present  century  have  produced  on  some  minds  the 
impression  that  the  foundations  of  revealed  rehgion  were 
undermined.  So  wise  a  man  as  Dr.  Charles  Hodge  wrote  a 
book  to  show  that  Darwinism  is  atheistic.  But  Dr. 
Hodge  was  more  alarmed  than  injured;  and,  since  his 
day,  the  air  has  cleared,  and  instructed  minds  perceive  that, 
though  evolution  should  become  the  accepted  belief  of  man- 
kind, the  religion  Christ  proclaimed  would  not  expire.  The 
Christian  apologist,  aided  by  God's  grace  and  wisdom,  has 
already  learned  how  to  adjust  the  old  faith  to  the  new  con- 
ditions. In  the  higher  realms  of  thought  there  are  today 
many  devout  Christian  evolutionists  whose  faith  is  in  nowise 
disturbed  by  the  scientific  and  philosophical  conclusions  at 
which  they  have  arrived.  The  point  I  wish  to  make  is  that, 
in  the  approaching  century,  the  gospel  message,  on  its  apolo- 
getic side,  should  bring  this  serene  faith  of  the  intelligent 
few  down  to  the  uninstructed  many.  Christian  preachers 
and  teachers  owe  it  to  the  masses. 

II.       THE  NEED  OF  A  POLEMIC  MESSAGE 

When  I  began  this  discussion  I  said,  in  the  first  place, 
that  the  twentieth-century  message  must  be,  in  part,  apolo- 
getic, and,  in  the  second  place,  in  part,  polemic.  I  have 
not  left  myself  time  to  unfold  the  second  division.  I  can 
only  pause  to  say  that,  in  my  opinion,  there  exists,  in  many 
quarters,  in  this  approaching  twentieth  century,  a  profound 
dissatisfaction  with  many  of  the  theological  tenets  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  bygone  ages,  and  that,  therefore, 
it  becomes  the  gospel  preacher  carefully  to  discriminate 
between  God-made  and  man-made  doctrines.  "He  that 
hath  my  word,  let  him  speak  my  word  faithfully.  What  is 
the  chaff  to  the  wheat,  saith  the  Lord."  I  cannot  dwell  now 
upon  the  reasons  for  this  dissatisfaction,  nor  point  out  the 


The  Need  oj  a  Polemic  Message  471 

particular  doctrines  impugned,  nor  indicate  the  remedy  to  be 
applied.  It  is  enough  to  say  that,  in  the  twentieth  century, 
men  will  refuse  to  be  bound  by  confessional  authority,  will 
insist  upon  going  for  themselves  to  the  original  sources  of 
divine  truth,  and  will  take  up  anew  and  examine  afresh 
every  one  of  the  current  ecclesiastical  dogmas.  They  will 
ask  after  their  origin,  trace  their  history,  and  pass  judgment 
upon  their  value.  Under  these  circumstances,  the  man  who 
keeps  close  to  the  teachings  of  Christ  and  lays  little  stress 
on  the  traditions  of  men  will  preach  a  type  of  theology 
which  the  twentieth  century  will  welcome. 

The  fundamental,  saving,  and  ethical  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity remain  ever  the  same,  but  the  theological  systems  in 
which  these  truths  are  imbedded,  and  through  which  they 
are  sometimes  obscured  and  distorted,  are  the  purely  human 
products  of  the  ages  which  called  them  forth.  The  Nicene 
fathers  wrought  under  the  conditions  of  their  time.  So  did 
the  mediaeval  fathers,  and  the  Lutheran,  and  the  Anglican, 
and  the  Puritan,  and  the  New  England  fathers.  None  of 
them  can  be  ranked  with  the  New  Testament  fathers,  and 
none  of  them  can  lay  claim  to  special  divine  inspiration  and 
authority.  They  served  their  generation  well,  and  are  en- 
titled to  gratitude  and  praise,  but  the  twentieth-century 
fathers  will  have  their  own  work  to  do,  and  they  must  do  it 
under  the  conditions  in  which  Providence  has  placed  them. 

In  my  opening  sentences,  I  said  distinctly  that  those 
features  of  the  twentieth  century  and  those  elements  of 
Christian  manhood,  and  those  constituents  of  the  gospel 
message  which  are  common  to  all  the  centuries  are  the  most 
fundamental,  central,  vital,  and  lasting.  These  I  deliber- 
ately set  aside,  to  discuss  with  you  those  less  important 
adjuncts  and  concomitants  of  the  gospel  message  for  which, 
in  my  judgment,   intellectual  conditions  in  the  twentieth 


472  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

century  will  make  a  special  appeal.  We  have  not  one  gospel 
for  one  age  and  another  for  another,  but  one  and  the  same 
gospel  for  all  ages.  At  the  same  time,  in  each  century,  the 
church  must  defend  the  faith  and  formulate  the  truth  ac- 
cording to  the  peculiar  conditions  and  needs  which  then  and 
there  obtain.  The  theology  and  the  apology  which  quite 
satisfy  one  generation  may  quite  misfit  a  succeeding  gen- 
eration. I  have  tried  to  point  out  those  new  and  peculiar 
conditions  in  the  twentieth  century  in  view  of  which  the 
Christian  leader  should  frame  his  defense  of  the  truth  and 
his  confession  of  the  faith. 

III.      THE  MAN 

This  Christian  leader  to  whom  will  be  committed  this 
high  and  solemn  trust,  what  qualities  must  he  possess? 

Surely,  for  one  thing,  he  must  be  a  man  of  rare  intelli- 
gence. He  must  know  the  past,  and  he  must  know  the 
present.  To  his  knowledge  of  God's  progressive  revelation 
in  Holy  Scripture  he  must  add  a  knowledge  of  the  theolo- 
gies, apologies,  confessions,  and  polities  with  which 
Christianity  has  expressed  and  declared  itself  through  the 
centuries.  To  his  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical  developments 
since  the  New  Testament  canon  closed,  he  must  add  a 
knowledge  of  the  age  in  which  he  lives — the  new  philosophy, 
psychology,  science,  ethics,  economics — the  new  thoughts 
which  are  stirring  in  the  brains  of  men  around  him.  He 
must  know  the  relations  of  past  and  present,  and  how  so  to 
adjust  and  utilize  them  that  God's  kingdom  shall  be  ad- 
vanced. Above  all,  he  must  know  the  mind  of  Christ,  and 
the  voice  of  the  Spirit,  and  how  to  interpret  them  to  the 
distracted  minds  and  darkened  consciences  of  men. 

Then  again,  he  must  be  a  man  of  rare  intellectual  hon- 
esty and  moral  courage.     To  this  end,  he  must  treat  his 


Qualities  0}  the  Man  473 

own  mind  with  respect,  opening  its  portals  to  the  ingress 
of  truth,  from  whatever  quarter;  not  stultifying  himself 
with  fallacious  reasoning;  not  soiling  the  pure  white  of  his 
soul  with  conscious  error;  not  professing  fealty  to  dogmas 
he  no  longer  believes,  nor  standing  in  with  the  popular  party 
for  selfish  ends ;  "not  handling  the  word  of  God  deceitfully ;" 
nor  concealing  the  light  of  God  in  the  interest  of  place  and 
reputation;  not  a  time-server,  in  the  bad  sense  of  that  term, 
but  giving  himself,  with  absolute  devotion,  to  the  service  of 
his  time. 

Still  again,  he  must  be  a  man  of  rare  spiritual  penetra- 
tion, able  to  look  into  the  heart  of  truth,  and  to  distinguish 
the  divine  original  from  all  human  counterfeits.  His  wide, 
profound,  and  accurate  knowledge,  his  conscious  upright- 
ness and  integrity  of  moral  purpose,  his  deep  reverence  for 
the  revelations  of  God  wherever  made,  have  been  so  many 
aids  to  the  clear  spiritual  discernment  of  divine  reality. 
With  the  authority  of  the  prophet  and  the  sage,  he  can 
convey  his  message,  because  it  has  been  granted  to  him  with 
spiritual  insight  to  behold  the  things  that  are  freely  given 
to  us  of  God.  "He  that  is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things,  but  he 
himself  is  judged  of  no  man." 

And,  in  the  last  place,  he  must  be  a  man  of  rare  peda- 
gogical skill.  To  live  in  the  midst  of  the  unrest  of  the 
twentieth  century,  its  divided  interests,  its  corroding  cares, 
its  anxious  questionings,  its  suspended  judgments,  its  inar- 
ticulate longings,  its  stifling  prejudices,  its  babel  of  voices, 
its  bewildering  maze  of  doubts  and  difficulties — to  live  in 
such  an  age,  I  say,  and  to  teach  and  guide,  to  win  and  save, 
requires  a  teaching  gift  and  a  guiding  skill  which  only 
Heaven  can  bestow.  In  such  an  age  the  Christian  preacher 
must  know  how  to  unfold  the  precious  truths  of  his  mes- 
sage, not  as  a  theologian  or  an  ecclesiastic,  but  as  a  humble 


474  Man  and  Message  for  Twentieth  Century 

and  devout  disciple,  himself  sitting  ever  at  the  feet  of  the 
matchless  Teacher.  He  must  know  how  to  gain  access  to 
the  mind  of  his  hearer,  and  how  to  make  it  receptive  and 
retentive;  how  to  divide  the  truth,  and  in  what  order  and 
measure  to  impart  it;  just  when  to  speak,  and  what  to  say, 
and  how  to  say  it.  He  must  know  how  to  eliminate  error 
from  the  mind,  and  to  substitute  truth,  not  unsettling  the 
mind  in  the  process.  "We  have  this  treasure  in  earthen 
vessels."  He  must  know  how  to  transfer  the  precious 
treasure  from  a  discarded  vessel  to  a  more  worthy  one,  with- 
out doing  injury  to  the  treasure  itself.  In  this  preoccupied, 
distracted,  hurrying  age,  he  must  know  how  to  secure 
attention,  awaken  interest,  allay  prejudice,  impart  instruc- 
tion, and  carry  conviction.  With  what  consummate  peda- 
gogic tact  and  skill  must  the  Christian  preacher  and  teacher 
carry  his  gospel  message  to  the  twentieth  century! 


XIX 

''LEST  WE  FORGET"— PRESIDENT 
WILLIAM  R.  HARPER 


xrx 

"LEST  WE  FORGET"  ^ 
William  Rainey  Harper,  Died  January  io,  1906 
In  the  death  of  President  Harper  our  denomination  lost 
its  most  widely  known  and  highly  honored  representative. 
His  forceful  personality  and  creative  genius  rendered  him 
easily  the  most  conspicuous  and  commanding  figure  in  the 
select  group  of  our  greatest  men.  The  ascending  steps  by 
which  he  attained  to  this  pre-eminence  are  known  to  us  all 
and  need  not  be  noted  here.  It  is  more  fitting  that  we  ask 
after  some  of  those  qualities  of  spirit  we  so  admire  in  him 
which,  though  in  less  degree,  it  is  quite  possible  for  us  to 
possess,  and  the  possession  of  which  would  enrich  our  lives 
and  augment  our  usefulness. 

DR.  harper's  spirit  OF  WORK 

We  name  first  of  all,  because  the  most  obvious,  his 
spirit  of  work.  He  was  a  tremendous  worker.  Men  who 
knew  least  of  him  could  readily  believe  this  when  they  saw 
his  stupendous  accomplishments;  and  men  who  knew  most 
of  him  were  amazed  at  the  multiplicity  and  magnitude  of  his 
undertakings.  Often  he  was  carrying  to  successful  issues 
a  score  of  enterprises,  any  one  of  which  would  have  tried 
to  its  utmost  the  capacity  of  any  one  of  his  associates.  He 
took  on  work  in  astounding  quantities,  and  he  turned  it  off 
with  astounding  celerity.  In  the  morning  it  piled  mountain 
high,  in  the  evening  it  was  level  with  the  plain.    As  his  life 

^  Read  before  the  Illinois  Baptist  Convention,  Carbondale,  III,, 
October   i6,   1906. 

477 


478  Lest  We  Forget 

of  toil  was  ending  he  conceived  of  heaven  as  a  place  in 
which  God  would  have  for  him  still  more  and  higher  work 
to  do. 

It  were  idle  to  insist  that  any  one  of  us  could  keep  pace 
with  President  Harper  in  this  regard,  but  is  it  idle  to  insist 
that  all  of  us  ought  to  work  harder  than  we  do  ?  Could  our 
pastors  be  animated  by  his  spirit,  make  conscientious  and 
diligent  use  of  all  their  powers,  account  it  a  crime  to  live 
indolently,  a  duty  and  a  joy  to  live  strenuously,  can  anyone 
doubt  the  immediate,  augmented,  and  blessed  results  of  this 
enthusiastic  devotion  to  honest  and  unremitting  ministerial 
endeavor?  Plain,  hard,  dogged,  persistent  work,  what 
scholars  and  preachers  it  would  make  of  us,  what  pastors 
and  organizers,  what  men  of  light  and  leading.  Under  such 
a  ministry,  what  a  membership  would  be  secured  and  edu- 
cated, and,  thereupon,  what  enlightened  and  aggressive 
forces  would  be  created  and  set  free  to  render  the  Christian 
church  glorious  and  triumphant. 

HIS  SPIRIT  OF  INQUIRY 

We  name,  secondly.  President  Harper's  spirit  of  inquiry. 
If  he  was  a  hard  worker,  he  was  also  a  hard  thinker.  His 
passion  for  doing  was  not  stronger  than  his  passion  for 
knowing.  Indefatigable  inquiry  was  as  native  to  him  as 
incessant  activity.  He  was  unceasingly  on  the  quest.  What- 
ever the  subject,  he  sought  to  reach  on  that  subject  the 
extreme  limits  of  ascertained  knowledge.  Partisan  views 
and  incomplete  conceptions  had  no  attractions.  For  the 
ingress  of  light  his  mind  was  open  on  all  sides.  Nor  was  he 
content  with  the  exploration  of  his  field  to  its  present  bounda- 
ries ;  his  inquiring  spirit  peered  into  the  regions  beyond.  In- 
every  sphere — scientific,  philosophical,  educational,  biblical, 
theological — there  is  assuredly  more  truth  yet  to  be  dis- 


Dr.  Harpefs  Spirit  of  Inquiry  479 

covered.     Upon  original  research  both  for  himself  and  his 
associates  he  laid  emphatic  emphasis. 

This  spirit  of  inquiry  ought  to  animate  every  religious 
teacher  and  leader.  Truths  most  familiar  are  capable  of 
more  thorough  mastery,  and  whole  realms  of  truth  lie  be- 
yond present  knowledge.  Nothing  can  be  more  fatal  to 
stimulating  pulpit  discourse  and  efficient  pastoral  guidance 
than  a  closed  mind.  The  man  who  has  ceased  to  inquire, 
whose  system  of  thought  is  a  handed-down  legacy,  whose 
ideas  are  incapable  of  correction  and  expansion,  to  whom 
study  and  reflection  are  no  longer  a  necessity,  that  man  may 
satisfy  a  few  belated  followers  as  sleepy  and  antiquated  as 
himself,  but  he  has  no  message  for  the  men  around  him  who 
are  really  awake  and  thinking.  Unless  his  own  spirit  is 
ever  in  eager  quest,  he  can  never  minister  helpfully  to  those 
whose  minds  are  open  and  expectant.  When  they  find  a 
religious  teacher  as  candid  as  themselves,  as  unfettered  by 
tradition,  as  honestly  anxious  to  know,  as  hospitable  to  new 
light,  as  enamored  of  patient  inquiry,  they  will  heed  his 
voice,  respect  his  opinions,  accept  his  guidance,  and  remold 
their  thinking  and  living  under  the  spell  of  his  illuminating 
and  stimulating  influence.  The  man  who  has  ceased  to  in- 
quire has  no  mission  to  the  men  whom  this  age  has  filled  with 
inquiries. 

THE   MODERN  SPIRIT  EXEMPLIFIED 

This  leads  us  to  note,  in  the  third  place,  that  President 
Harper's  spirit  was  essentially  modern.  Few  men  had  a 
higher  appreciation  of  the  past.  His  lifelong  Semitic 
studies  and  his  early  teaching  of  the  classics  gave  him  the 
most  exalted  conception  of  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews  and 
the  civilizations  of  Greece  and  Rome.  He  could  measure 
the  ancients  at  their  full  value,  but  he  himself  was  not  an 
ancient,   and   he   had   no   disposition  to   bury   himself   in 


480  Lest  We  Forget 

antiquity.  All  that  was  good  in  that  old  world  he  was 
eager  to  conserve,  but  he  was  not  less  eager  to  appropriate 
the  good  the  modern  world  has  brought  us.  To  live  in  the 
past  is  to  die  with  the  past.  To  think  and  act  in  the  present, 
accepting  its  verified  truth,  employing  its  scientific  method, 
feeling  its  vitalizing  influence,  immersed  in  its  progressive 
spirit,  is  to  be  a  living  man  in  this  present  living  world.  No 
man  among  us  was  more  thoroughly  modern  and  modern- 
ized. His  magnificent  leadership  was  possible  because  he 
was  always  abreast  of  his  times  and  always  a  few  steps  in 
advance  of  the  column. 

We,  too,  in  a  smaller  way,  are  supposed  to  be  the  leaders 
of  Christian  thought  and  endeavor.  It  becomes  us  to  esti- 
mate at  their  full  value  the  men  and  achievements  of  the 
past.  Augustine,  Luther,  Calvin,  Edwards,  and  the  rest 
will  always  command  our  reverence.  But  we  must  never 
forget  that  those  men  in  their  day  were  decidedly  modern. 
They  were  pioneers  and  pathfinders,  not  afraid  to  question 
the  past  or  even  to  break  with  it,  seeking  so  to  conceive  of 
Christian  truth  as  to  commend  it  to  the  best  intelligence  of 
their  generation.  We  on  our  part  shall  best  reverence  them 
by  following  their  example.  The  world  in  which  they  lived 
has  ceased  to  be,  and  a  new  world  has  been  ushered  in. 
Many  theological  conceptions  for  which  our  fathers  would 
have  shed  their  blood  are  now  unthinkable.  The  West- 
minster Confession  of  Faith  was  the  basis  of  our  own 
Philadelphia  and  New  Hampshire  confessions,  and  yet  there 
is  not  a  man  alive  today  who  can  believe  the  Westminster 
Confession  as  it  was  believed  by  the  framers  of  it.  If  we 
of  this  age  would  win  to  Christ  the  men  of  this  age,  we  must 
offer  to  them  the  old  gospel,  indeed,  but  the  old  gospel  un- 
trammeled  by  theological  affirmations  in  which  it  is 
impossible  for  modern  enlightenment  to  acquiesce.    It  must 


President  Harper* s  Breadth  of  Spirit  481 

be  the  old  gospel  as  it  comes  fresh  from  the  lips  of  Him  who 
first  revealed  it,  and  not  as  incrusted  with  the  accretions  of 
ecclesiastical  tradition.  In  every  realm  of  human  inquiry 
it  is  the  best  intelligence  that  has  been  touched  by  the 
modern  spirit.  To  ignore  or  antagonize  this  intelligence  is 
to  jeopardize  our  cause.  Unless  our  teachers  and  leaders 
are  minded  to  participate  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  new 
era,  and  cordially  to  accept  every  new  truth,  whether  in  the 
realm  of  nature  or  religion,  as  soon  as  it  has  been  decisively 
authenticated,  a  gulf  will  be  created  between  the  Christian 
church  and  modern  enlightenment  which  no  amount  of 
declamation  and  proscription  can  possibly  bridge. 

BREADTH  OF  SPIRIT 

In  the  fourth  place,  President  Harper  possessed  a  re- 
markable breadth  of  spirit.  Though  himself  a  Semitic 
specialist,  he  was  wholly  free  from  the  narrowness  so  often 
seen  in  men  ardently  pursuing  a  single  line  of  study.  His 
interest  and  sympathy  easily  overleaped  all  such  confining 
limits.  Scholars  devoted  to  the  most  diverse  branches  of 
learning — science,  language,  philosophy,  medicine,  law, 
divinity,  education — found  in  him  one  who  could  share  their 
aspirations  and  stimulate  their  enthusiasm.  There  was  room 
for  it  all  in  his  capacious  mind  and  heart.  Though  a  Baptist 
by  conviction,  ecclesiastical  exclusiveness  was  wholly  foreign 
to  his  nature.  He  made  lasting  friendships  with  Protestant 
divines.  Catholic  bishops,  and  Jewish  rabbis,  and  he  im- 
pressed them  all  with  the  urbanity  and  dignity  of  his  own 
personality. 

How  it  would  enlarge  the  sphere  and  increase  the  influ- 
ence of  our  Baptist  ministry  if  the  world  could  see  in  us  a 
similar  breadth  of  spirit !  Without  the  sacrifice  of  any  right 
conviction  we  might  be  known  as  men  to  whom  nothing  is 


482  Lest  We  Forget 

alien  which  concerns  human  welfare.  An  enlightened  and 
sympathetic  interest  in  social  betterment,  civil  reform, 
school  improvement,  and  the  urgent  calls  of  philanthropists 
for  the  curtailment  of  intemperance,  crime,  and  poverty 
would  bring  us  into  friendly  touch  with  the  most  influential 
citizens  in  our  community  and  make  us  clergymen  of  note 
and  power.  We  wish  to  be  known  as  Baptists,  but  as 
Baptists  of  so  broad  and  generous  a  type  that  all  good  men 
can  respect  and  love  us.  We  wish  to  employ  all  honorable 
means  to  advance  our  Baptist  cause,  but  our  spirits  are  cast 
in  too  large  a  mold  to  indulge  in  sectarian  narrowness 
and  rivalry.  Neither  our  creed  nor  our  traditions  compel 
us  to  look  askance  on  the  successes  of  others.  If  Christ  is 
preached  and  souls  are  won  the  Baptist  mind  is  too  wide 
and  free  to  harbor  envy  and  detraction, 

A  CHRISTLIKE  SPIRIT 

In  the  fifth  place.  President  Harper  possessed  a  singu- 
larly Christlike  spirit  of  charity  and  forgiveness.  No  man 
in  our  communion  was  ever  more  severely  criticized  nor 
more  unfairly  treated.  Hosts  of  friends  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  were  offset  by  hosts  of  enemies,  many  of  whom  were 
friendly  at  his  face  and  hostile  at  his  back.  From  pulpit, 
platform,  and  press,  in  public  and  in  private,  he  was  the 
object  of  attack.  He  bore  it  all  with  forbearing  patience. 
He  never  answered  back.  When  he  was  reviled  he  reviled 
not  again.  He  harbored  no  resentments.  No  wounds  were 
inflicted  which  he  could  not  overlook  and  forgive.  Indeed, 
abuse  sometimes  seemed  the  most  direct  avenue  to  his 
benevolent  regard.  Gracious  to  all,  he  became  specially 
gracious  to  those  who  distrusted  and  opposed  him.  On  his 
most  loyal  supporters  the  sun  of  his  favor  almost  seemed  to 
shine  less  benignly. 


Dr.  Harper^s  Freedom  from  Religiosity  483 

Here  is  a  great  example  for  all  aggressive  religious  lead- 
ers. If  we  are  positive  men  and  are  really  on  the  move,  if 
we  have  a  mind  of  our  own  and  a  will  to  achieve,  we  shall 
be  misrepresented  and  opposed.  Friends  will  rally  to  our 
support,  but  enemies  will  not  be  wanting.  Slander  and  abuse 
will  test  our  temper;  opposition  and  obloquy  will  be  hard  to 
bear;  but  let  it  all  go.  Feel  and  speak  kindly.  Give  rein 
to  no  ugly  spirit.  Curb  the  vengeful  impulse.  Seek  no 
reprisals.  Spread  wide  the  mantle  of  charity.  Be  patient 
and  go  forward.  Only  forbearance  and  forgiveness  become 
those  who  are  consciously  in  the  right. 

FREEDOM   FROM   RELIGIOSITY 

In  the  sixth  place,  President  Harper  commended  him- 
self to  all  right-minded  men  by  his  freedom  from  the  spirit 
of  religiosity.  Profoundly  religious,  reverent  toward  God 
and  all  sacred  things,  saturated  with  the  righteous  spirit  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  filial,  trusting  spirit  of  the  New, 
he  kept  himself  aloof  from  all  the  hackneyed  forms  of  re- 
ligionism. He  never  irreverently  called  God  by  endearing 
names,  never  counterfeited  a  degree  of  religious  emotion  he 
did  not  feel,  never  paraded  his  religion  to  be  seen  of  men, 
never  felt  the  need  of  evincing  his  saintliness  by  talking  in 
holy  tones  and  posing  for  pious  effect.  His  was  a  plain, 
simple,  straightforward,  honest  religion  which  feared  God 
and  trusted  Christ  and  helped  men,  and  which  commended 
itself  to  the  favorable  judgment  of  all  who  can  distinguish 
between  genuine  religion  and  pretentious  religiosity. 

Here  is  a  worthy  example  for  all  who  are  active  and 
prominent  in  Christian  service.  Men  of  sense  respect  us 
when  we  live  our  religion  in  plain,  homely  fashion.  Respect 
ceases  when  piousness  takes  the  place  of  piety.  Contempt 
comes  when  religiosity  assumes  the  role  of  religion.  When 
we  became  Christians  and  ministers  we  did  not  cease  to  be 


484  Lest  We  Forget 

men,  and  are  expected  to  be  manly  still.  It  behooves  us  to 
say  our  say  in  clear  Saxon  phrase,  just  plain  English  words 
from  plain,  honest  hearts,  the  note  of  assurance  and  emo- 
tion in  our  speech  exactly  toning  with  our  unfeigned  inward 
conviction  and  feeling.  It  behooves  us  to  do  our  work  as 
honest  workmen  should,  solely  minded  to  do  it  well,  neither 
seeking  praise  nor  fearing  blame.  It  behooves  us  to  live 
our  lives  as  real  men  and  real  Christians,  scorning  all 
fictitious  seeming,  and  really  being  what  we  fain  would  have 
men  believe  we  really  are.  When  word  and  deed  and  life 
ring  true,  religiosity  will  be  shamed  out  of  countenance,  and 
religion  will  take  its  rightful  place  and  fulfil  its  sacred 
mission. 

In  the  last  place,  we  name  President  Harper's  spirit  of 
Christian  fortitude  under  intense  bodily  suffering  and  in  the 
face  of  approaching  death.  Seldom  has  the  like  been  wit- 
nessed. If  he  was  great  as  he  stood  forth  in  the  noonday 
of  his  power,  he  was  greater  as  he  passed  down  into  the 
valley  of  the  shadow.  Disease  might  torture  and  destroy 
the  body,  but  the  intellect  remained  clear  and  the  will  un- 
conquered.  Though  stricken  and  doomed,  he  performed  his 
daily  tasks  and  carried  forward  his  projected  plans  with 
unchanged  interest  and  devotion;  and  set  about  his  final 
preparation  for  the  great  event  with  the  same  calmness, 
method,  and  thoroughness  that  had  always  characterized 
him  in  other  things.  It  needed  a  long  and  agonizing  sick- 
ness to  exhibit  the  qualities  of  his  soul. 

We  who  remain  have  not  yet  been  subjected  to  the 
supreme  test.  When  that  time  comes,  may  the  final  illness 
show  us  working  on  while  strength  remains,  with  a  like  con- 
stancy and  steadiness,  and  passing  into  the  strange,  portent- 
ous dark  of  eternity  with  a  like  expectancy  and  assurance. 


Date  Due 

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